


Alone for Another Night

by ErebosBlue



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abused Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Abusive Deceit Sanders, Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - High School, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Needs a Hug, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Sweetheart, Bullying, Caring Logic | Logan Sanders, Child Abuse, Dissociation, Don't know why I didn't tag that earlier, He will stab a bitch, Hurt Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Manipulation, Misgendering, Morally Neutral Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, On the topic of abuse, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Logic | Logan Sanders, Slow Burn, That has taken HOURS to create, There's a magic system, This is becoming a bigger plot than I thought-, Trans Male Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Unsympathetic Deceit Sanders, Urban Fantasy, Virgil goes through a lot, WE GOT A NAME FOR DECEIT, We stan a logic boy, back on track, i guess, where do i even start?, whoops
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:54:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22759582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErebosBlue/pseuds/ErebosBlue
Summary: Virgil was always different from everyone else.While this sounded like the usual fairytale trope:Forgettable main character is different and gets everything in the end,It was far different.Virgil was different because he couldn't escape.Not his past.Not the people around him.Not his mind.Nothing.So, yeah, Virgil wasn't your fairytale story.———ON HIATUS, NOT CANCELLED
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Deceit Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Which is good - Relationship, Which is not good
Comments: 24
Kudos: 136





	1. Diluted Perspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOO BOY.  
> So, this does get explained later in the story, but I'll explain basic things just because.  
> Powers in this are called Presents.  
> There's an entire classification for Presents. For example:  
> B Presents deal with the four elements: water, fire, earth, and air. B-2 is the power to control water around them.  
> Second, if you didn't quite understand the relationship tags,  
> Virgil is in an abusive relationship with Deceit,  
> He will eventually end up with Logan.  
> SIDE NOTE: There's nothing wrong with anxceit. I don't judge anyone that ships it, I really don't. This just fits better than making a new original character for such a major role.  
> One last warning. Careful with triggers. A lot happens.

Virgil was always different from the rest, which wasn’t a good thing. While everyone his age would show off their Presents, Virgil was told to act like he didn’t have one. _Very_ few people were born without a Present; It was practically unheard of. Even people who were thought to be Presentless had one that just wasn’t plain to see. So, no one really believed Virgil when he said he didn’t have one. They were right, after all. Virgil did have a Present, but he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone what it was.

"Virgil!" Virgil was startled from his thoughts by his mother yelling.

"Yes, mother?" Virgil heard a scoff and nothing else for a short period of time.

"The kitchen is filthy. Isn't it _your_ job to clean it?" Virgil scrambled out of his bed as soon as she said kitchen. He had totally spaced cleaning it when he had gotten home from school. Virgil rushed down to see his mother with a displeased face as she tapped her foot in the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, mother. I completely spaced it-"

"No excuses. Just clean it before anything else can happen." Virgil gulped. He knew what that meant. His mother stormed off while Virgil began to clean. It wasn't bad, in all honesty. It was definitely in need of cleaning, but it was nowhere near filthy. It didn't take more than 10 minutes to fully clean and for his mother to come back to inspect it. "You missed the sink." Virgil's mother pointed to a single glass sitting in the sink. Virgil had foolishly dismissed it as too little to clean. He really should've expected his mother to get on his case about it.

"I'm sorry-"

"Just go to your room." Virgil's eyes grew in surprise. She _never_ let him off the hook when he messed up or was even _close_ to messing up. Virgil quickly made his way to his room, not giving her a second to rethink her decision. Virgil closed the door behind him swiftly and slid down it. Virgil let his eyes to the vast change of light. His room was dark with a subtle glow of purple. It was quite unlike the bright rest of the house with its tones of cream and beige. The room itself was fairly bare, he wasn't allowed to have much, but it was at least safe. Virgil put on his headphones that were resting on his shoulders. He had forgotten to push pause in his rush, so the music was still blasting. As Virgil relaxed against the door, his phone went off. 

> Remy: You gonna be a school tomorrow?

Remy Crawford, Virgil's only true friend. Remy was practically a brother to him at this point. He'd been with Virgil through thick and thin.

> Virgil: Yeah.
> 
> Virgil: Why?
> 
> Remy: Just had a bad feeling.
> 
> Remy: Do I have any reason to be worried?

Virgil had to actually think about that for a second. _Did_ Remy have any reason to be worried? Nothing had really happened since the last time he had seen Remy.

> Virgil: My mother is acting a bit weird, but that's about it.
> 
> Remy: Is J laying off you?
> 
> Virgil: He hasn't said anything today, but I doubt it.

J, or Janus, was Virgil's boyfriend that he would rather not think of when he was trying to relax. He wasn't awful or anything, Virgil just didn't want to think of him when he was trying to relax as there were... bad times he would rather not focus on.

> Remy: Why are you even dating him? 
> 
> Virgil: You know I can't leave.
> 
> Remy: I know, but he hurts you.
> 
> Remy: He abuses you.
> 
> Virgil: He's not that bad and even if he was, I still wouldn't be able to leave.
> 
> Remy: I hate how you think this is the only way. 
> 
> Remy: Just stay safe.
> 
> Remy: If not for yourself, for me. 

Virgil smiled at his phone, but the smile fell when he processed what had been said. Janus wasn't a great boyfriend a lot of the time, but he had never hurt him for no reason. Janus had only hit him when Virgil messed up. Virgil was used to that. That's how his world worked. Once upon a time, Virgil thought that being hit or degraded for each and every mistake was wrong, but that's how everyone seemed to function. The fantasy of that _not_ happening was thrown out the window fairly quickly. 

* * *

_Alexia ran down the stairs of her house. Who could blame her? She was a young child with an abundance of energy. She had been told the stairs were dangerous, so she made sure to hold onto the rail._

_"Alexia!" Alexia tilted her head slightly as her dad yelled at her. "Don't run down the stairs! What are you? An animal!?"_

_"Dad?"_

_"Just sit down and eat your food that your mother fucking slaved over." Alexia slunk over to the bowl sitting on the table. She was used to being yelled at, but she couldn't really understand why her dad was so mad at her. As she slowly ate, she felt the eyes of her parents watching her like hawks. She was tempted to ask them why, but past experiences suggested that was a bad idea. She wouldn't be surprised if she had missed something that they were going to hold against her later._

_They always did._

_When Alexia finished her food, she put the bowl in the sink and began to climb the stairs, because that's how it always worked. Not this time, however._

_"Where are you going?"  
_

_"To my room?" Alexia stared at the bright eyes of her mother. Her mother stared back at her with blazing anger. Was this still about the running? Why? It was over and Alexia hadn't thought it was that bad._

_"I don't think so. What have we told you about disrespect?" Alexia tilted her head. How had she been disrespectful? She hadn't done anything that she could remember. "You're 8. You should know by now to have some goddamn respect for your parents." Alexia knew it was better to walk down the stairs to prevent her mother from getting too mad, but she couldn't will herself to. She hadn't done anything disrespectful all day. She didn't deserve this. "Alexia!" Alexia flinched back when her mother raised her voice._

_"I didn't do anything wrong." Alexia's voice trailed off as she spoke without thinking. The incoming hit should've been expected, but it still ended up surprising Alexia._

_That was the last time she questioned what she had done wrong._

* * *

> Remy: Can I introduce you to people tomorrow?
> 
> Virgil: You know I hate meeting new people...
> 
> Remy: I know, but they're really nice and you need someone positive in your life.
> 
> Virgil: ...
> 
> Virgil: Fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried a slightly different style with this one. I'm normally not a huge fan of flashbacks, but I thought this would honestly be easier and more convenient than trying to explain everything about the past in the present. Plus, Virgil is very biased about the past and doesn't remember exactly how it happened. We love him, but his mind is f u c k e d.


	2. The Encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's where shit starts to make a bit more sense!  
> In case it wasn't clear in the first chapter, Alexia is Virgil. Alexia is Virgil's deadname. Everyone knows Virgil as Virgil so there won't be any intentional deadnaming unless I decide to add it later for some reason.  
> Remember that Powers are called Presents and also people can have more than 1. Again, this will be explained in the fic itself, but I just wanna make sure that's clear.  
> ALSO: I realize Remy seems OOC in both the other chapter and this one, but he's really worried about Virgil. Like, really fucking worried.  
> Trigger Warning:  
> Janus manipulates Virgil and there is a decent amount of non-con touching, though nothing too sexual.

Virgil made his way through the halls to get to the courtyard. Remy _always_ hung out in the courtyard before school. If Virgil was gonna meet new people, he would rather get it over with sooner rather than later. Plus, he wouldn't know where to find them at lunch.

"Virgil." Virgil stopped dead in his tracks as he heard Janus' voice. He knew he should turn around and face him, but as he heard footsteps walk closer and closer, he couldn't let himself. As Janus put his arms around his middle, his throat seized. He always did it, but it didn't make Virgil want to puke any less. "Where are you going?"

"I was just going to see Remy." Virgil stuttered out the half-truth, this throat still protesting. Virgil could feel as Janus set his chin on Virgil’s shoulder.

“Is Remy more important than me?” Janus' tone was full of bitterness and poison.

“No! He just wanted to see me and introduce me to people!” Virgil wasn’t sure it was Janus' Present making him tell the truth or his own will to please Janus and avoid the consequences of lying to him.

"Oh? Other people? Am I not enough?" Janus squeezed his arms tighter around Virgil's waist. Virgil let out a pathetic squeak in response. "Who's more important? Be a good girl and tell me." 

"You're more important!" Virgil couldn't see him, but he knew Janus' eyes had turned from their regular bright yellow to a sickening glowing hue. 

"Good girl. You can go, but during lunch, I expect you there." Janus let go of Virgil who practically stumbled out of his arms. His legs were barely supporting him, but he still continued to walk towards where Remy was. Virgil really hadn't needed the dysphoria from hearing that today, but here he was. 

The rest of the world fell away as Virgil focused on each step and where it landed. The tiles of the school turned to the grass and pavement of the courtyard. Virgil, even though knowing he was close to Remy and should've been actively looking, continued focusing on each step. After who knows how long, Virgil felt the familiar arms of Remy wrap him into a hug. Remy said something to him, but Virgil couldn't focus on it. He couldn't focus on anything really well. Everything was... foggy. 

Remy pulled Virgil over to where 3 other people were standing. They were probably the 3 people Remy wanted Virgil to meet. Virgil sat on the grass surrounded by the people around him. Virgil, not quite hearing what they were saying, focused on what they looked like. For people he had never seen before, they didn't look awfully ordinary. They were the type of people who stood out in a crowd. 

The first was shorter, but from what Virgil could tell, really not that short. He had bright teal blue eyes that sparkled with the sun. It was hypnotizing. He had wavy dirty blonde hair that edged on more brown than blonde. The second was in between the two heights as the 3rd was hella fucking tall. He had red-brown eyes that had more red than brown. Virgil was used to odd eye colors as he himself had one purple eye and one green. Not to mention the fact that Janus had naturally yellow eyes. Virgil shook his head slightly and went back to dissecting features. The one with red eyes also had red hair to match... and also a red outfit. He must've really liked the color red. The third had pale skin, dark blue eyes, and unnaturally dark black hair. 

The more he looked at the 3, the more he noticed. The first and third wore glasses. The second had a script in his hands, no doubt for theater. The first had a stuffed animal in his bag shaped like a rabbit. The 3rd was looking concerningly at Virgil. The 2nd looked weirdly similar to Remus who Virgil talked to every once in a while. After focusing a little harder on trying to hear what they were saying, Virgil could pick out the names of 3. The first was named Patton, the second was Roman and the third was Logan. Virgil was tempted to speak up as he wasn't as foggy, but he still couldn't find the energy to do so. At least he could now listen. 

"You mentioned that this happens a lot, did you not?" Logan's voice was about what Virgil expected it to be. To the point with little to no inflections. Virgil realized pretty quickly that they had been talking about him the whole time. Not that he was really surprised considering how he showed up. 

"It happens far more often than I'd like, yes." Remy was always concerned about Virgil. It made sense in its own way. Remy was like a big brother to Virgil and had been ever since they had met. Virgil smiled slightly to himself as he thought about it.

"Have you ever tried grounding exercises with him?" Virgil was slightly confused by the question brought up, but once again couldn't find the strength to ask.

"Don't know any."

"Mind if I try?" Remy nodded slowly, not saying anymore. Odd. Normally he was super talkative. Logan took a seat next to Virgil which slightly shocked him as he had marginally drifted off. "Can you hear me, Virgil?" Virgil nodded. "Do you think you can talk?" Well, now that he was being asked, he kinda _had_ to be able to talk. He already fucked up once today.

"Y-Yeah." Virgil's voice was shaky, but at least it wasn't super quiet. 

"Good." Logan continued with only a second break. "Can you name 5 things you can see?"

"Grass, you, Remy, Roman, Patton, bag." 

"Now, 4 things you can feel."

"Grass, hoodie, hair, headphones."

"3 things you can hear."

"People talking, music, airplane."

"2 things you can smell."

"Cookies and grass."

"And 1 thing you can taste." 

"Residual toothpaste." Virgil relaxed after he finished. He actually felt a lot more grounded than before. Huh. He really hadn't expected it to work considering music was normally the only thing that had a chance of recovering him when he was in that state. Speaking of music, he had forgotten to pause the music that his headphones, which were rested around his neck, were playing. Virgil quickly opened his phone a pushed paused, feeling slightly embarrassed that the people he had just met had been able to kind of hear his music.

"You can use that exercise whenever you're in that state dissociation. It'll help ground you." For someone who really didn't seem like a smiler, Logan gave Virgil a small, but genuine smile. Why would Logan be so nice to him when he had just taken up his time with something as dumb as _that_? It didn't make any sense. Virgil had only been a nuisance thus far and everyone around him was looking at his as if he had just done something great.

"You look confused about something," Roman stated bluntly, looking bewildered. Virgil shook his head slightly. He wasn't going to miss this opportunity of acceptance even if it was surely a ploy. Roman looked even more confused at his gesture but seemed to move on fairly quick. "As a side note, I'm curious about your two's Presents. I have a knack for knowing how strong someone may be, and I know one of you could probably qualify for Protector status." 

"Well, that's certainly not me. I only got 2 and they're nothing special." Remy immediately chimed in, taking a sip of the drink that Virgil only _now_ noticed somehow.

"Nonsense! It's not the Present itself that makes you strong, it's how you use it!" Even though Virgil had just met Roman, the grand gesture he made while saying that and the tone he said it seemed very much like him. Extra, in essence. 

"D-4 and G-1." Remy took a pause to take a sip. "Happy now?" Virgil watched as Roman lit up. Clearly, he was very happy with the response. While Roman began gushing to Remy how his Presents could be used in tandem, as well as asking questions about them, Virgil took a second for himself. Logan hadn't moved from his spot next to Virgil, which he certainly wasn't complaining about. He had a calming presence... unlike everyone else. As Virgil relaxed fully for the first time in such a long time, Patton approached him. 

"You look hungry. I have food if you want some." Patton smiled down at him with puppy dog eyes. Even though Virgil didn't feel _that_ hungry, he wasn't going to say no. 

"Sure." Patton's face lit up as he reached into his bag and pulled out a small baggie of cookies. So that was where the cookie smell was coming from. Patton handed him which Virgil took without hesitation. He, for some reason, trusted that Patton wasn't going to do anything like he was used to. He was just offering him food. He had no doubt someone's Present was causing him to be so relaxed. He was pretty used to knowing when a Present was at use whether it was intentional or not. If he had to guess who's, it would probably be Patton's or, at least, one of Patton's.

"You seem to be thinking a lot." Virgil looked over to Logan as he spoke, but Logan was looking towards the rest of the group. "May I ask you why?" Virgil turned back to face the group with Logan. Patton had joined Roman in yelling at Remy at Presents who was desperately trying to explain that he really didn't care about Presents.

"Someone's Present is making me feel more at ease," Virgil stated bluntly. From the corner of Virgil's eye, he could see Logan nod. 

"One of Patton's is." Virgil counted it as a win that he had guessed correctly but said nothing. "You're familiar with the fact that Present classifications don't always explain all of the Present someone has, yes?" At this point, both Logan and Virgil were facing each other, still sitting on the damp grass. Virgil nodded. "Well, Patton has the Present C-5. If you're not familiar, C-5 is the Present to heal the mind. Patton's is a little different than the classic Present. His Present puts trauma and your past behind you while you're near him." 

"But it comes back after he leaves, doesn't it?" Logan didn't respond as instantly as he used to. Even if he hadn't answered yet, Virgil had his answer. 

"Unfortunately, yes. Though, if it's really affecting you as much as we've seen today, you really see someone about it." Virgil shrunk into himself as he even thought of seeing someone. "You don't have to right now, but your mental health is important." Virgil nodded, but he knew a lot of things would have to change before he considered it an option. "On a lighter topic, you never did answer what your Present or Presents are." 

"Don't have one." Logan looked shocked and opened his mouth to talk. Virgil prepared himself for the usual questions when he told someone the routine lie. To Virgil's surprise, Logan closed his mouth and just gave Virgil a smile. Virgil didn't remember ever getting that reaction. It was always the same. It was always questioning. It was always belittling. It was _always_ being treated like a child. 

Much to Virgil's dismay, every moment must end eventually. During a moment of quiet in the group, Remy had finally gotten away from Roman and Patton, the bell for classes to start rang. Everyone said their goodbyes, Virgil truly meaning his as he knew Janus wouldn't allow this again. The others didn't seem to pick up how remorseful he was, however. Virgil didn't know how he felt about that but began making his way to his first class anyways. As Virgil walked, his stomach dropped when he realized what lunch was going to consist of.

* * *

_Alexia walked down the stairs of her house. Her parents were having people over, which meant she needed to get everything together. That including everything from food, setting the table, to possibly hosting depending on who was over. Today, there was no hosting, which was good news for Alexia. The 9-year-old really hated hosting her parents' get-togethers. They were loud, the people were rude, and the stench of alcohol was nauseating after a certain point. At least Alexia wasn't likely to pick up drinking after all this._

_At the bottom of the stairs, Alexia's mother waited. Alexia passed her without problems, which was good. That meant the only reason she was waiting was to make sure Alexia actually did as she was told. As soon as Alexia made her way into the kitchen, however, her mother walked into some unknown part of the house. Alexia guessed she was done making sure Alexia was doing her job. Alexia knew she had to cook, but what and with what ingredients was the real challenge. If Alexia was warned before school, she would put on the crockpot and just throw ingredients in to make something decent. She didn't have that time today. She actually didn't know how much time she had at all._

_On that note, Alexia it was more effective if she set the table first to be sure that was done before the guests arrived. Food could be excused if it was cooking, the table didn't work in the same way. After the table was set, Alexia checked the kitchen for something to cook that would at least be decent. She settled on chicken and some kind of salad with whatever they had. It wouldn't taste great as she really didn't know how to cook chicken, but it would have to do._

_Luckily for Alexia, the food finished right before the guests arrived. She quickly set the food on the table and ran up the stairs to her room. If her parents didn't want her hosting, then she was expected to hide out in her room until they left. As she rushed past her father, she saw eyes full of rage. Had she done something? She thought she had done everything they wanted. Alexia tried to pay no mind to it as she settled into her room. She barely had any toys, but she made do. It wasn't hard to get her hands-on notebooks and sketchbooks, so she normally drew or wrote very simple stories. She wasn't the most creative child when it came to writing, but the drawings were her favorite anyways._

_Eventually, she could hear the chatter of her parents and their guests die down and the door open and close. She rushed downstairs to clean the dishes but instead became face-to-face with her mother._

_"You know you're supposed to be gone by the time guests are here!" Her mother yelled as she slapped Alexia. Hits were normal when she messed up, but she hadn't messed up. Had she?_

_"I-I was just-"_

_"No excuses! God, you're such a brat." Her mother grabbed Alexia's wrist rather harshly and pulled her towards the sink. "Clean and then sit at the table. It's clear we need to have you re-learn some of our rules." Alexia hated it when they went over rules. It was just them being mean to her and then telling her what to do. Alexia nodded despite herself, knowing that she wasn't getting out of it._

_That was the last time Alexia was even remotely in sight by the time guests arrived._

* * *

Virgil didn't know what he expected when Janus said that he expected him to be there at lunch. Whatever it was, it wasn't this. It wasn't being mocked, humiliated, and _hurt_. His time with the other group had really softened him. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if he hadn't tasted what it would be like without it. Yet, here he was. Being held to the wall being beat and mocked while the person who was supposed to love him watched. Virgil felt his piercing yellow eyes watching every hit, maybe even enjoying it. The only reason he was in the relationship was to be protected from this. Was to be protected from the bullying and the near-death experiences, but he was doing _nothing_. Virgil never thought Janus was _that_ bad, but he was rethinking that. 

This wasn't normal. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Virge is finally starting to realize that he needs to get out of the relationship!  
> Too bad that's not gonna happen yet. >:)  
> I'm kidding, kind of. He is realizing that it's bad, mainly because of Patton's Present, but that doesn't mean other Presents can't counteract that. Not that I plan to do that... Or do I?


	3. This Is(n't) Normal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Off we go again!  
> Just to make sure you remember some details:  
> Powers are called Presents  
> The Alexia bits are Virgil's past  
> Virgil is "Presentless"  
> He started his relationship with Janus for protection, but he's starting to question that after he came in contact with Patton's Present.  
>  **TW:**  
>  **Allusions to rape**

Virgil sat on his bed trying to make sense of what was happening. Janus had promised him safety, but when he got in a bad mood, he would watch him get hurt. Virgil's mind drifted to prior that day when Janus was watching him get beaten against a wall. Virgil had thought that was normal because that's how he grew up, but could he be wrong about that? When his head was clear of all of that, he felt different. His head was clear, and he could see the truth. The fog lifted in his head, but it was starting to come back. It was horrifying feeling the fog start to cover parts of his mind again. He couldn't let that take over him again. 

> Virgil: Rem, we have a small problem.
> 
> Remy: What's wrong, Virgil?
> 
> Remy: Did something bad happen today?
> 
> Virgil: Well, yes, but that's not what this is about.
> 
> Virgil: So, Patton.
> 
> Remy: What's wrong with Patton?
> 
> Virgil: Nothing!
> 
> Virgil: He's great. 
> 
> Virgil: The thing is, his Present basically throws away trauma when you're around him.
> 
> Virgil: Which was great when I was there, not great after I left.
> 
> Virgil: That's still not the point...
> 
> Virgil: Sorry, I'm slightly panicking.
> 
> Remy: It's fine, Virgil. 
> 
> Remy: Take your time.
> 
> Virgil: Right, so,
> 
> Virgil: It kinda cleared my vision about how I think about things.
> 
> Virgil: I realized that what I have with Janus isn't normal or healthy. 
> 
> Virgil: The problem?
> 
> Virgil: It's starting to fade and I'm starting to think of it the same way again.
> 
> Virgil: Does that even make sense?

Virgil's slight panicking got cranked up a notch when he realized Remy hadn't responded in a couple minutes. That was practically unheard of with Remy. He was always on his phone. Virgil set down his phone and ran his fingers through his hair roughly. Why was his head so goddamn foggy? For as long as he could see straight, he realized it made sense for his trauma to twist how he thought of things, but not like this. Not to the point when even though he knew the truth, his brain would accept it for some reason that Virgil couldn't figure out. It didn't make any sense! 

> Remy: Virgil, I need you to calm down.
> 
> Remy: I know you're panicking.
> 
> Remy: Does it feel like a Present?

That's what Virgil had thought at first but Presents usually had a range. If it really was Janus' Present, it should've gone away by the time Virgil had gotten out of range. It wasn't his own, that was for sure. How would it even be his own? Virgil took a deep breath and went back to his phone.

> Virgil: I doubt it's a Present.
> 
> Virgil: Who has this kinda range?
> 
> Remy: I suppose that's true.
> 
> Remy: Do you feel its trauma?
> 
> Virgil: I mean, maybe?
> 
> Virgil: I've haven't had a clear head in a long time.

The last time Virgil could confidently say he had a clear head before today was all the way back when he was 7. He was 16. God, was he really 16? It had been so long since he had actually celebrated his birthday. Virgil was hit with a wave of nausea and dizziness which caused him to drop his phone on his lap. Virgil's hands went to his head which began pulsing in pain. Virgil couldn't wrap his head around what was happening before he passed out for the night. 

* * *

Virgil woke up not being able to breathe and facing the wrong side of his bed. Virgil couldn't remember what had happened the previous night, but he had clearly fallen asleep in his binder. Ow. Virgil got off his bed and looked over at it. His phone was sitting there, most likely dead as he didn't charge it the night before. It was weird. Virgil never forgot to plug in his phone. Virgil shrugged it off but regretted the action as his ribs screamed at him. He was gonna have to wear a sports bra to school instead of his binder. The thought itself made Virgil wanna puke. Despite himself, Virgil went to grab his clothes for after his shower and included a sports bra. 

After the shower and after Virgil was changed his mind wouldn't leave the thoughts of what would happen without his binder. Misgendering wasn't uncommon considering how Janus referred to him, but that wasn't what he was worried about. Janus himself was what really scared him. He could feel the stares and touches already. Virgil shook his head, he needed Janus and they both knew it. Even though the thoughts themselves were enough to push Virgil to wear a larger hoodie than normal, he couldn't dwell on it. 

Virgil grabbed his phone and quickly charged it with his Present. Virgil plugged in his headphones, put them on, turned on music, grabbed his bag, and walked out the door. The longer he stayed inside the more he would want to put on his binder and hurt his ribs more than they already were. Virgil, on his way to the school, checked his texts to make sure Remy hadn't tried to talk to him last night. What he found was not what he was expecting.

> Remy: Well, are you okay?
> 
> Remy: Virgil?
> 
> Remy: It's been 10 minutes. Are you okay?
> 
> Remy: Virgil, I swear.
> 
> Remy: Please respond.

Shit. Virgil must've fallen asleep mid-conversation. Virgil immediately went to calm Remy's nerves, but part of his brain told him something was off. Virgil ignored it and continued typing his response. 

> Virgil: Hey. Sorry I wasn't responding. I fell asleep. I'll be at school soon.

When Virgil arrived, which wasn't much longer after he sent the text, he went the backway to the courtyard. He didn't plan to stay there, but he needed to make sure Remy knew he was okay. As Virgil approached the small group, their eyes turned relieved, but there was something underneath that. It was slightly odd, but there _was_ plenty for them to be worried about. He wasn't wearing his binder, he looked as if he hadn't slept in days, it was just a real shit show.

"Virgil! You're okay! You really scared me!" Remy met up with Virgil halfway and put his hands on his shoulders. 

"I sent you a text this morning, you know."

"Still." Remy paused and took his hands off Virgil's shoulders. "Did you figure out what was happening last night?" Virgil blinked at Remy in confusion. 

"What?" Remy's face fell into shock. What had happened last night? Before Remy could respond, Virgil's phone went off.

> Janus: Where are you?

"I have to go." Remy began to protest, but Virgil had already started walking away, "Talk to you soon!" Virgil knew where Janus was, he was always in the same place. He was always in classroom C-8. The classroom used to be used for Present extermination. Kids could go in, practice alone or with other people, but that was the only place they could do it. The room fell out of use; an empty room sometimes used for storage. With the room, the rule also faded and now staff pretty much let people beat the shit out of each other. 

Virgil's' thoughts ended when he opened the door to the classroom. Janus was sat there with a displeased look on his face. Virgil was sure to shut the door behind him because he _knew_ it could get ugly. 

"You're late."

"Sorry, I was just-" Virgil stopped talking as Janus stood up.

“First seeing that group yesterday, now being late. I gave you an _inch_ of freedom and _this_ is what I get?” Virgil really should’ve known this wouldn’t go well. He should’ve known he would run out of luck _fast_. Virgil took steps back as Janus took steps forward causing his back to hit the wall. Virgil was frozen by pure fear as he looked into Janus' eyes. Janus to a second to look Virgil up and down clearly noting something Virgil had hoped he’d notice later rather than sooner. “Well, we can work with that.”

In the end, Virgil ended up missing his first class and 5 minutes late to his second. His face was stained with tears and he felt filthy, unclean. Janus has never done… _that_ before and Virgil sincerely hoped it never happened again. Virgil paid attention to nothing leading up to lunch. He tried doing Logan’s exercise, but it only helped momentarily.

When it actually came time for lunch, Virgil didn’t know what to do. If he skipped out on Janus… Though, it really couldn’t get worse than what he already did. Virgil hated the thought of going through that again, but he really did still need that protection.

His feet made their mind up before his brain did as before he knew it, he was in the courtyard being surrounded by people he considered friends. Patton getting him water and Logan sitting him down. Somewhere in his mind, he knew Logan had asked what happened to him. Remy and Roman looked down at him with confusion and concern. The words to tell them everything that happened threatened to leave his throat, but his mouth wouldn’t open.

“Virgil, please. I need you to breathe.” Logan’s voice was full of worries, but Virgil couldn’t ease any of them. “Who? Can you answer who did this to you?” Virgil shrunk into himself. He couldn’t.

“His boyfriend. I can guarantee it was that bastard.” Remy spat out his response with pure disgust.

“Your boyfriend?” Virgil nodded slightly as Logan double-checked. His eyes drooped before they lit with fire once more. “ _Why?”_ Roman nodded with Logan’s question while Patton seemed to be retreating into himself from fear. Virgil flinched from the once calm man now practically yelling.

“Shouldn’t we ask later and just take care of him right now?” Logan was silent for a second before dropping his shoulders and sighing.

“Yeah.” Virgil blinked in surprise, but relaxed when Patton pushed a water bottle into his hands.

“We can figure this out later. Drink water now.” Virgil complied, taking a couple sips before a paper full of numbers was being handed to him by Roman.

“That’s everyone’s numbers. Text or call us if you’re ever in danger.” Virgil nodded once more, that seemed to be all he did at this point, and stuffed the paper into his hoodie.

“Hey, Virgil?” Virgil looked up towards Remy. “Do you remember our conversation last night?” Virgil shook his head “How? The only way that makes sense is if you were developing a Present, but you’ve _said_ yourself that you’re Presentless and it’s too late for you to be developing one.”

“Well, not technically. There’s a way for you to be a late bloomer with Presents. However, we should not be focusing on that right now- “

“Guys.” Patton interrupted again, getting in-between Remy and Logan. “Lunch will end soon. We need to get him home.” The pure thought of going home, let alone going home early, was enough to nearly make him puke.

"Can’t go home.” All eyes turned to Virgil. Virgil shrunk under the stares, even if they were full of concern.

“Is there any other place you can stay?” Virgil slowly shook his head to Patton’s question. The only other place he ever stayed was with Janus and that wasn’t gonna happen. Patton put his finger to his head and thought for a second before bursting with newfound energy. “I know! Today is Friday. So, we should all go to my house for a sleepover. We can make sure you’re safe while also having some fun!” Virgil knew he should say no. He knew that his parents would blow up on him. He knew that Janus would get worse if he didn’t see him over the weekend. He knew all those things and he didn’t care.

"That sounds… nice.” The entire group lit up, Logan more subtly, but it was still there. Virgil gave them a small, but well deserved, smile.

“I’d love to make it babes, but my family made plans already.” Remy paused and took a sip of his drink. “Is that still okay, Virgil?”

“Yeah.” Virgil trusted the others. It was hard to believe that they would do anything to hurt him. They just wanted to help. Remy gave Virgil a large smile.

“Good.”

“On that note, Virgil?” Virgil looked over to Logan as he said his name. “Can you last the rest of the school day or do you need to be taken to Patton’s early?” Virgil’s line of sight sunk to the grass beneath him as he answered.

“I don’t want to be here anymore.” Virgil trailed off, thinking about what had happened earlier. He couldn’t stand seeing Janus acting normal while Virgil suffered from what he’d done. Roman and Logan looked at each other before Roman spoke.

“I got this.” Roman crouched down in front of Virgil. "Don't worry, Virge. I got you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You probably noticed that there wasn't an Alexia section in this chapter. That's because we're generally done with them! Virgil is in a weird state right now. We don't need the Alexia scenes to set up how warped his perspective is anymore because he himself is starting to realize how warped it is!
> 
> (Also, the fog analogy totally isn't referencing anything. Haha. Totally.)


	4. What Makes Us Human

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE WE GO.  
> The last chapter is kinda confusing, so to recap:  
> Virgil was starting to realize that his relationship with Janus is wrong, but he fell asleep and remembered nothing of the night before. Janus was big nasty and the others tried to take care of him after that.
> 
> This chapter starts off with a lot more fluff than usual, but that isn't going to last. Enjoy it while you can!
> 
> Small thing: I changed two heights slightly. Logan is now the tallest. That's only important for one scene, but it was worth noting.

The next thing Virgil knew, he was in a car heading to Patton’s house. Roman had insisted that he could miss a class, or even the rest of the day saying that his parents would understand. Patton said that he had informed his parents, but that they wouldn’t be home ‘til later. Patton had handed off his key to the house to Roman before Roman swept Virgil off into his car.

Virgil watched as the houses went by. Virgil rarely drove in cars. He always walked everywhere, and his parents _rarely_ took him anywhere. It’s not like he could drive either. He was old enough to, but he couldn’t start learning to drive because of his parents. The same parents that always complained that he _couldn’t_ drive. They were never satisfied.

“Something on your mind, Virge?” Roman had also started calling him Virge. Virgil hoped it stuck. The nickname wasn’t degrading, it wasn’t meant to misgender him. This nickname was just there because he was a friend to him.

“Just… lost, I guess.” Roman sighed and stayed silent for a moment.

“I don’t know what happened. I know Logan and Remy connected the dots, but I’ll admit that I’m not the brightest. _However_ , you’re safe when we’re with you. You have every right to keep what happened to yourself, but know that me, Logan, Patton, Remy are all here for you.” Virgil felt steady tears fall as he looked back to the window. Roman barely knew Virgil yet he already cared this much. Was it pity? Virgil hated that idea, but if that’s what it took to feel cared for, he could take the pity.

Virgil felt the car stop. They must’ve reached Patton’s house. The house looked normal, but Virgil knew looks could be deceiving. Virgil grabbed his backpack and followed Roman to the front door and led Virgil inside.

“Alright, so, do you think you can be alone until we get off of school, or do you need me to stay?”

“Please stay.” Virgil flinched at how pathetic he sounded, but Roman didn’t mention it. Roman nodded and shut the door behind him. Roman and Virgil departed their bags on the couch in the living room before Roman took his phone out of his pocket.

“I need to call my parents about what’s happening. Feel free to do the same while I step out.” Virgil nodded while Roman disappeared into a room. Virgil sat on the couch and pulled out his phone. He debated telling his mother or father about the fact that he wouldn’t be coming home for a couple of days. On one hand, it was what he’d normally do when he was running late, but this is different. Plus, they would just degrade him over texts like usual.

Virgil put his phone away deciding that he really didn’t care about what happened with them anymore. His life was already ruined by them. Virgil took a second when he realized what he had just concluded. His parents had ruined his life. It was obvious, but Virgil had never concluded it that way before. Virgil’s thoughts ceased when Roman came back.

Time passed while Virgil and Roman relaxed at Patton’s. Virgil was at first as stiff as a brick, but he relaxed as Roman began practicing for theater in front of him. Theater had always intrigued Virgil, but he never got to it because of all that had been happening in his life. Roman, however, was a great actor. He was a little overdramatic at times, but he seemed to know his character and the play itself quite well.

Roman ran through the script once by himself, only doing his lines, but then asked Virgil if he could say the other lines for the second time. Virgil warned him that he wasn’t any good but agreed to read the lines from the couch. It was surprisingly fun to read lines and have Roman bounce off how Virgil delivered it even if Virgil himself wasn’t happy with how he said it. When they got done, which seemed so quick, Roman looked at Virgil with the biggest smile.

“Who says you aren’t any good? You were great!” Virgil laughed quietly and set the script down next to him.

“You’re exaggerating. I’m not that good. I’ve never _really_ acted before.” Roman pouted childishly and sat down next to Virgil.

“You could’ve fooled me.” Virgil rolled his eyes playfully and leaned into the couch.

“You’re really good. Why haven’t I seen you in any of our school plays?”

“Oh! That’s because I didn’t go there until last week.” Virgil leaned forward slightly.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I- “ The door opened before Roman could explain revealing Patton and Logan. “Hey, guys!” Roman got off the couch and greeted their friends. Virgil nodded towards them but didn’t stand up. Virgil was too comfortable on the couch to make an effort to get up. Patton, Logan, and Roman made their way over to the couch and sat. Roman and Logan sat beside him whole Patton sat on the floor in front of him.

“How was your time with Roman?” Patton asked bubbly, practically bouncing as he sat.

“Eventful. Roman ran through his script, so that was interesting.” Roman lit up when Virgil said his name, but Virgil decided not to give him a knowing look.

“Right. Roman, isn’t that the script for the school play?” Logan asked, clearly already knowing the answer by his tone.

“It is! The auditions are in 2 weeks, so I’ve got to make sure I’m prepared!”

“You _do_ realize that you don’t need to memorize everything before you audition, correct?”

“But I want to!”

“And your _grades_?”

“What about my grades?”

“What about your grades?!” Virgil couldn’t help the small laughing fit that came out of his throat. Seeing Roman and Logan arguing with no malice was surprisingly entertaining to Virgil. Logan looked over to Virgil in shock but gave him a small smile after a second.

“Guys.” Patton had a solid pout on his face. “Can we not argue. Just for tonight.”

“Does this happen a lot?” Virgil asked in clarification. It wasn’t hard to believe considering how different Logan and Roman were.

“Unfortunately, it happens quite often.” Logan straightened out his back and sat up straight. Virgil found himself leaning further back into the couch, not really sure why he was doing such. “Roman and I… get along in a, we’ll say, strange way.”

“I think part of it is the rivalry,” Roman added, making eye-contact with Virgil. Virgil tilted his head slightly in confusion.

“Rivalry?”

“I guess that would be part of it,” Logan said to Roman before turning his body towards Virgil. “Roman and I have this kind of rivalry because of our Presents. We’re on the same level of power, but Roman likes to insist that he is stronger at any moment in time.”

“That’s because I am!” Logan rolled his eyes and continued talking to Virgil who was officially curious.

“That attitude has turned into him starting fights that he knows I will jump into to prove a point.” Virgil didn’t know if it was how Logan said it or what he said that made Virgil devolve into small giggles. Virgil was not one to laugh, let alone giggle, but something about the atmosphere had triggered _something_ in his mind. The 3 smiled at him, which caused Virgil to slightly hide his face in embarrassment.

“Actually, Remy mentioned that you were Presentless. I hate to be _that_ guy, but are you sure you’re actually Presentless?” Virgil took a second. Roman had said previously that he could tell when someone was powerful. Had he gotten that vibe off Virgil? Did Virgil really want to tell them though?

“Roman.” Logan’s tone was strict, stricter than anything Virgil had heard from him before.

“What? I was just- “

“Can I trust you- You know what? No. This is my choice.” Everyone in the room looked at him questioningly. Virgil shook his head slightly. He could tell anyone he wanted. He didn’t have to listen to anyone about that. His parents told him not to for their own selfish reasons, and Janus, the only other person who knew, was no different. “I _do_ have a Present. God, that feels good to say.”

“You do?” Patton looked at him confused. “Did it develop last night?”

“No. I’ve had it since I was 13.” Mouths dropped, but nothing was said. “My Present creates new Presents based on traumatic experiences. That’s really the reason why my parents don’t want me to tell anyone.”

“So, you’re Present creates new Presents when something traumatic happens.” Logan looked at him with questioning eyes, but Virgil could see the curiosity behind that.

“Yeah. They normally form instantly as I think the main point of the Present is to protect me.” Virgil pulled out his phone. He had a note on his phone that kept track of what Presents he had. Logan was obviously trying not to look, but Virgil could see his eyes darting over to it.

“Why would your parents want you to keep this under wraps.” Virgil looked over to Roman who seemed sincere. He really didn’t put the pieces together.

“My parents don’t want people to know because then they would question why I have so many.” Roman’s eyes widened. Was he really that surprised? Patton stood up from his spot on the floor and walked towards Virgil. Virgil was confused until Patton embraced him in a hug.

“That’s so awful.”

“I mean, it is, but it’s not like I’m not used to it.” Patton clearly didn’t want that response as he pulled Virgil in a tighter hug.

“Can I ask what Presents you have. You don’t have to, I’m just curious.” Virgil really had expected Logan to ask. Virgil was honestly hoping someone would. He hadn’t gotten to talk about his Presents. Ever.

“It’s all good. In no particular order, E-8, C-4, A-3, and B-15. I used to classify B-15 as B-5, B-6, B-7, and B-8 because they all formed at separate times, but B-15 is more concise.”

“That’s so many!” Roman sounded just as flabbergasted as he looked. Patton let go of him and had a very similar look on his face.

“And it’s ever-growing.” Now that Virgil thought about it, he wasn't sure if he had gotten another one. Considering-

"Thank you for sharing that." Patton interrupted Virgil's thoughts. Virgil looked up to Patton who looked like he was thinking. "Is it time for cookies?" Virgil smiled at him and nodded. The less they focused on his past and everything, the better. Patton's expression turned to joyful glee. Patton skipped off to the kitchen, which Roman followed immediately. Logan stood up with Virgil, who nearly fell over when he stood up, but gave Virgil a concerned look. Virgil appreciated the concern, but he was okay right now. Logan followed him into the kitchen which already had ingredients on the counter. 

The atmosphere was relaxed as the group made cookies. Virgil figured that it was a bit more relaxed because one of the last remaining secrets Virgil had was told. Virgil, admittedly, didn't tell them his life in detail, but they definitely had enough to paint the picture.

Each person had a station as they baked. Patton made the dough; it _was_ his recipe after all. Virgil rolled the dough, with Patton when he was done, and cut out shapes. Virgil used both cookies cutters and a knife when Roman requested more intricate designs. Speaking of Roman, he was set to decorating before they went into the oven. Not every cookie had decorations before. Logan was set to put them on the tray, so they didn’t cook into each other, and baking them. They all decided that they would decorate the plain cookies after.

The group finished decorating and cleaning after who knows how long. Virgil relaxed into the couch with a cookie. Patton’s Present was working wonders on his psyche. Sure, it would go away so soon as Virgil left, but he made use of the freedom it permitted. Everything would go to shit as soon as he got home anyways. Patton’s parents arrived half-way through cookie making. Virgil hid behind Logan as he was the tallest. Actually, Virgil was the shortest so probably could’ve hidden behind anyone. Virgil smiled slightly as he remembered how surprised Logan was.

“Patton, please eat a reasonable amount,” Logan commented, sitting next to Virgil once more.

“But they’re so good!” Patton sat down next to Roman who was sat next to Virgil.

“Remember the last time you ate too many?” Roman added, looking over at Patton. Patton drooped his head downwards.

“Yeah.” Patton, for someone who had taken an almost maternal role with Virgil, sounded like a small child being disappointed. Virgil found it adorable, but also knew that Patton was extremely powerful. The 3 continued bickered as Virgil’s thoughts drifted.

Virgil only knew of one Present that _one_ of them had. For people who were so intrigued and passionate about Presents, they hadn’t told him any of theirs besides C-5. They didn’t _have_ to tell him, and he wasn’t _super_ interested, but it was interesting.

“Are you okay, Virgil?” Logan asked setting his hand on Virgil’s shoulder. Virgil would never admit how much he leaned into it as he looked over to Logan.

“Yeah. Just thinking.”

“About anything in particular?” Roman and Patton were still engrossed in their conversation, so Virgil answered.

“Curious about everyone’s Presents. Can’t help it.” Logan nodded slightly.

“It’s a natural instinct to be curious about such things. That’s why, I bet, Roman was so curious about you. He really does have a knack for knowing how powerful someone is.” Virgil listened, always intrigued by what Logan taught him, and took a bite of his cookie. “He probably pinned it on Remy until he had a moment alone with you.” Roman and Patton were getting progressively more energetic and loud as Virgil and Logan continued their conversation.

“He mentioned Protectors that same day, didn’t he?”

“You actually remember that? Yeah, he did.” Logan laughed quietly, seeming flabbergasted, and continued. “There’s actually something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” Virgil tilted his head slightly in confusion. “Roman, Patton. It’s time.” Virgil felt a surge of panic as their conversation, which was loud and boisterous, halted.

“I guess it would be. He _did_ just open up to us.” Patton was talking to Logan like Virgil wasn’t sitting right there. Virgil didn’t know what to feel at that moment.

“Pat, I’m right here.” Patton rushed over to him, which startled him a bit too much.

“Of course, kiddo! Sorry about that.” Patton crouched down in front of Virgil and grabbed his hands. “It’s just hard to talk about this and… and have it make sense. You understand?”

“I guess.” Virgil trailed off as Roman and Logan joined Patton in front of Virgil. Virgil looked between the 3 of them. All Virgil’s thoughts consisted of was confusion about what was happening.

“You see, the 3 of us are actually Protectors. _Your_ Protectors to be exact." Virgil recoiled as Roman attempted to explain. "I know, that means that we were sent to recruit you, but-"

"But we won't. You don't need that." Logan interrupted and set his hand over Virgil's which was still being held by Patton. "Before you ask, no. We didn't know anything about you before we met you." Virgil didn't know how to feel. They couldn't just _not_ recruit him. They were required to by law. They were ordered to get him to join the Protector ranks by their section leaders. It wasn't negotiable. 

"You can't just say you won't. Aren't you required to?"

"Yes, and no. We can say that we didn't because you were too unstable, but they might not believe that and try again later." Logan explained, looking over to the other 2 as if asking for help. 

"However, if we don't, we will have to leave you," Roman added not even making eye-contact with Virgil. Virgil understood why, but still. 

"We don't want to do that, kiddo." 

"Then what are you going to do?" Virgil tried to keep his voice low. If they left him... He'd be alone again. He had Remy, that was true, but what about them? Virgil couldn't be a Protector. He just couldn't. He couldn't imagine being forced to. Did Logan lie to him? Would they really make him? Please, god, no.

"I don't know. We're going to do something. We're not going to hand you over to them." Logan gently pushed one of Patton's hands and grabbed it with his own. 

"Are we finally planning to leave? Is it rebellion time?" Roman stood up and stretched out dramatically. "I've been waiting to for forever."

"Only if it gets that far." Logan didn't sound very hesitant though. In fact, Virgil could hear an underlying tone of excitement under the usual monotone voice. Would they really risk leaving the Protectors just to make sure he didn't have to be one?

"You seem lost. What's wrong, Virge?" Patton questioned with his usual sweet voice.

"You would do this all for me?"

"Of course! Plus, like Roman was saying, we never really wanted to be Protectors anyway. We've wanted to leave for a long time." Patton explained giving Virgil a reassuring smile. Virgil could understand that, at least. From what he knew, being a Protector wasn't as glamorous as the media made it out to be. That still didn't explain everything, but he didn't need to know everything right now. Virgil just gave Patton a nod and rested his head backward. The others seemed to get the hint and returned to the spot they had been before, except for the fact that Patton stayed on the floor. 

Eventually, the exhaustion set in and everyone, but Virgil was out cold. Virgil was used to having long nights and was sat in one of the chairs in the living room. The rest were also there but sleeping on the floor. Virgil looked outside the big window to his right as he relaxed. The moon was exceptionally bright, and the stars weren't much different. Virgil took the time to process what had been said. Virgil had told them about his Present, or Presents depending on how you looked at it, and they had told him that they were his Protectors that were assigned to recruit him. It was hard to believe how much had been revealed in only one day.

Virgil leaned back in the chair. He trusted them. No matter what, he trusted them. They had only helped him. Virgil had no reason to hold what he had just learned against them. If they were telling nothing but the truth though, they would need his help. The more Virgil thought about it, the more he knew what he needed to do. He needed to learn how to use his Presents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this being such an information dump of a chapter. A lot of shit needed to be set up for later chapters. Shit is about to start going down, I promise.


	5. Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA TIME:
> 
> I'm mostly writing this to cope. I cope a lot through writing. If you're reading this you might be coping too. So, here are some things to remember.  
> 1\. Your trauma is valid  
> 2\. You are more than trauma  
> 3\. You will always have people to support you
> 
> Okay, I'll stop, but you are important.
> 
> PSA OVER

Virgil rested his hand on the doorknob to his house. When he opened it, he would no doubt be ripped to shreds. He didn't regret not telling his parents that he would be gone for most of the weekend, it wouldn't have changed anything, but the feeling that maybe he should've taunted his mind. Virgil pushed through the what if's and opened the door. 

As Virgil opened it, he noticed that his parents were not where he expected them to be. He expected to open the door and see his mother and father sitting at the table just waiting to tear him to shreds. Instead, they were nowhere to be seen. Virgil pushed further into the house. He stalked the halls and heard nothing no matter where he went. He didn't _want_ to deal with them, but their absence was worrying. Not because he was worried about them, however. If they weren't home, that meant that they were preparing for something.

They were no doubt going to be pissed when they saw he was home, but the fact that they were preparing something was downright scary. Even when he wasn't there for a whole weekend, they would never go to the store to get food. In their mind, that was Virgil's job and they wouldn't do it for him. When they did go out, they would get something to taunt him or, in the worst cases, hurt him. They had a plan and Virgil just had to wait and see it. 

Virgil went up to his room and sat on his bed. Without Patton's Present, he was back to panic attacks every second that now bordered on PTSD attacks. God, was that what they really were? He wouldn't be surprised. Being able to look at his life without rose-tinted glasses really showed him that, surprisingly, it was okay. It was hard to think like that but being able to see _why_ everything hurt made that pain bearable. Virgil's throat pushed out a dry laugh. It took him that long to realize that everything made sense? He would've called it pathetic if he didn't know that he couldn't have changed how he thought. Presents were always at play. Speaking of Presents. 

Virgil stood up. He was pretty positive that he had more Presents than the last time he checked. They hadn't appeared and activated instantly like they usually did, but he knew a lot was happening. What exactly happened with them was unclear, but Virgil didn't need to focus on that anyway. Virgil reached out his hand. Only one way to check: Focus on trying to do something and see what happens. Virgil tried to focus on a memory that he thought may have created one of them. First, when Janus watched him get beaten half to death.

Virgil spat at the thought of Janus but focused on the memory regardless. He had made a promise to himself that he would learn how to use his Presents better for the others. They were disobeying and would need to fight back. Virgil may not be a Protector, although they wanted him to be, but he could still learn how to beat their asses to keep his friends safe. As Virgil focused harder purple non-opaque shields appeared on his forearms. That just proved he had new Presents. 

He messed around with them a bit to see how functional they were. As he messed around, he found that they didn't grow, but that he could detach them and throw them about 10 feet before they disappeared. Virgil also found that they didn't break easily when they were on his arms, in fact, he hadn't been able to break them when they were on his arms yet. However, they were pretty easily broken when they were on the ground. A hefty stomp seemed to do the trick which wasn't great. 

Virgil retracted the shields and went to focus on the... other memory. Virgil took a deep breath and tried to focus on what had happened in the room on Friday. Virgil really didn't want to focus on it, it sent him into a panic whenever he did, but he needed to. Virgil felt his stomach twist as the memory went further along. It was just a memory, he knew that, but it was so fresh. It showed him what he never wanted to happen with Janus. Virgil felt his body start to change. A shapeshifting Present. Who would've guessed?

“Wonderful.” Virgil looked over himself after he was done checking the Present. Definitely a different body. Virgil shook out of the shapeshifted form. He was genuinely happy that he had one, his dysphoria would definitely be glad, but he was exhausted after focusing on... _that_ for too long. Virgil sat on his bed, trying to relax, when he heard the front door open. Fuck. Virgil stayed in his room, waiting for the indication that they were looking for him.

“Virgil!” There it was. Virgil tried to compose himself as he opened his door and walked down the stairs. His parents had already settled into the living room by the time Virgil was down the stairs. 

“Where were you?” Virgil's father, or Hunter, asked quietly messing with something in a grocery bag. Virgil was confused by the bag but complied.

“I was at a friend’s house. They helped me with schoolwork.” While it wasn’t the full truth, it wasn’t a lie. Logan _had_ helped him with a bit of schoolwork before Roman took him home.

“You really think we believe that?” Virgil figured as much. He could’ve said anything, and they wouldn’t have believed him. “This house went to hell and back because you weren’t here.” Virgil was tempted to say something snarky but knew that would make it worse. His mother stood up and stalked over to Virgil. The stench of alcohol reeked off of her. “We let you do… _this_ and then you leave?” Virgil knew she was referring to him being trans.

“I’m sorry-“

“No. We’re done.” Done? “Dear?” Virgil’s father stood up with the bag. Virgil took a step back and hovered over the option of activating a Present.

“You’ve disobeyed us for the last time.” Virgil’s father pulled out a handgun from the bag and shot it at Virgil. Virgil, thank god, activating his shield in time. Virgil’s mind went into survival mode as his father took another shot. Virgil barely shielded that one as he wasn’t used to the shields.

“Just die already!” One more shot was fired which Virgil missed with his shield. The bullet went in and out of his shoulder causing Virgil to fall. His parents, being the bastards they were, calmly put the gun away and walked to their room. Virgil hissed as he moved his arm to his phone. Virgil opened it, trying not to let the blood drip on it. His parents had done a lot of things, but the gun was new. Virgil hovered over Logan’s number. Even if he had promised to call Logan whenever he was hurt, he still felt pathetic. Virgil pushed passed his embarrassment and pressed call. Virgil held it to his ear only to hear 3 beeps before Logan began talking.

“Virgil?”

“Yeah. It’s me, Logan.”

“Are you okay?” Virgil shifted to try and use his fire Present to cauterize the wound. Anything to stop it from bleeding.

“Not particularly.” Virgil opened his hand and lit up his purple and black fire.

“What happened?” Logan’s voice was full of concern. Virgil pressed his fire to the wound which caused him to hiss in pain. “Virgil?”

“I’m alright. My parents are drunk. The came home with a gun and shot me.” A beat of silence.

“Are they still home?”

“Yes, but I can guarantee they’re passed out.” Virgil shifted more to check the wound more clearly. His poor sweatshirt. It wasn’t his favorite stitched one that was hidden in the closet, but it still was a nice sweatshirt.

“Can you send me your address? Or would you prefer to say it aloud?” Virgil relayed the information of where he lived while he went into the bathroom to bandage the wound. Virgil cut the sweatshirt to reveal the wound, there was already no saving it, and wrapped the wound. “How is your injury?”

“Wrapped. The bullet went straight through surprisingly, so I’m just trying to stop the bleeding.” Another beat.

“Didn’t you mention the fact that you have C-4 yesterday?”

“I do, but it only works on other people. Trust me, I’ve tried it on me, and it does nothing.” In another moment of silence, he heard a car start.

“How are you mentally?” Virgil figured Logan would ask that. Virgil answered as he began climbing the stairs.

“Fine for right now. I’m making sure everything is under control.” Virgil looked around his room for something else to wear instead of his cut and ripped sweatshirt. It was, unfortunately, a pull off one, which is why he had to cut it.

“Why only right now?”

“Not processing it right now. Haven’t processed it, so I’m not panicking.” Virgil pushed through the pain and lifted it over his head. He could’ve just cut it off, but he figured it would be fine since the wound was burned and bandaged. He was wrong as it still hurt like a bitch. Virgil was tempted to put on his favorite hoodie, but he didn’t want to get blood on it.

“I’ll be there soon. What’s happening right now?”

“I’m just changing out of bloodied clothes.” Virgil looked over to his binder. He wanted to put it on but remembered that he recently got H-1. Virgil activated it and made his chest flat. Virgil didn’t know how to feel. It was all he had ever wanted, but he remembered why he got the Present whenever he activated it. Virgil threw off the sports bra and threw on a tank top. He quickly tied his favorite hoodie around his waist. Logan hadn’t talked in a while, but he was fine with the silence. 

“I’m almost there. Did you find suitable clothes?”

“I did.” Virgil looked around the house. He wasn’t sure why he felt compelled to look around the kitchen, but he couldn’t stop his feet as he was led to the kitchen. Virgil activated his shields hearing… something. Virgil opened his mouth to tell Logan but got sidetracked by the fact that H-1 didn’t deactivate when he activated J-3.

“I’m parked outside. Can I come in?”

“Yeah.” Virgil left the kitchen but kept his shields active. A moment later the call was hung up and the door was opened. Virgil deactivated the shields as soon as he was Logan.

“Those are…” Logan trailed off.

“New? Yeah, they are.” Virgil walked towards Logan who looked very confused.

“Right. Well, we should go.” Virgil tilted his head slightly. “I’m not letting you stay in a house with parents that shot you. Plus, even if I’m not going to recruit you, I’m still your Protector.” Logan gently put his hand on the shoulder that wasn’t bandaged.

“Well, when you put it that way, it’s not like I can refuse.” Virgil gave Logan a smile before putting his headphones back on his shoulders.

“Before we go, I need basic information so that I can formally put in what happened.” Virgil sighed and sat on the floor Logan joined him, albeit confused.

“I, Virgil Storm, was out for the weekend and did not tell my parents. My mother and father, Helen and Hunter Storm, questioned me. I told them where I was but didn’t tell them everything. Not happy with my answer, they pulled out a gun and tried to shoot me. I dodged the first two with my Present, but the third hit my shoulder. I believe they are intoxicated. They are currently passed out.” One last beat. “That good enough?”

“Yeah. That’s more than good enough.” Logan slowly grabbed Virgil’s hand. “I’m sorry, Virge.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so short.  
> It just couldn't be spread out more.


	6. The Storm Brews

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a bit, but ya bitch is back.  
> I don't really know what to say in this note...  
> I guess I just wanna say that it might seem like Virgil is super inconsistent with panic attacks, but I'm using my own experience with them which are fucking wild. I don't know if anyone else can delay panic attacks, but it's not great. I can't do it all the time, but it normally makes them worse. Like this chapter demonstrates!  
> So, yeah, I'm using my own experiences of mental illness for this fic.  
> !! Everyone deals with mental illness different and they're all valid !!

Virgil passed out on the drive to Logan’s house. Apparently, Logan kept a blanket in his car, so Virgil immediately passed out when his body came in contact with the soft blanket.

Virgil woke up in a bed surrounded by blue. Specifically, a dark, rich blue. Virgil was tempted to nuzzle into the bed, but he then remembered that this was _not_ his house.

“Ah, I see you’ve woken up. How are you feeling?”

“‘m alright.” Virgil panicked as he realized H-1 would’ve disappeared as soon as he fell asleep. Virgil quickly activated it again.

"You’re panicking.” Logan got off his desk chair he was sitting out and sat on the bed. “What’s going on?” Virgil curled into a tighter ball and didn’t dare look Logan in the eyes.

“Present disappeared when I fell asleep.” Virgil’s voice was low and mumbly. It would be a wonder if Logan heard, let alone understand what he was saying. There was a second before Logan responded.

"You’re shapeshifting Present, correct?” Virgil nodded. “I understand how uncomfortable that would be after what Janus did.” Virgil flinched slightly but tried to hold on strong. “I also know that you might not believe me, but I would _never_ do something like that to you.” Virgil believed him, he really did, but it wasn’t all that. Just the idea that Logan could see him as a girl twisted his stomach.

“You see me as a dude, right?” Logan looked shocked for a second before a look of understanding settled over his face.

“You _are_ a… dude as you put it. In fact, you’re one of the strongest men I’ve met. You’ve been through so much, but you keep strong through it all.” Logan rested his hand on Virgil’s shoulder. Instead of flinching away, Virgil leaned into it. It was unconscious at first, but Virgil realized half-way through. Not that it stopped him. “I respect you a lot for that.” Why couldn’t Virgil have dated someone like Logan? Why was he stuck with Janus? Why couldn’t he just leave?

“Thank you.” It was quiet, but Virgil knew Logan heard as his face subtly lit up.

“Now, I really need to check your injury.” Virgil nodded once more and sat up, causing the blanket to fall. Logan offered his silent thanks and went to unwrapping the bandage. “You burned it?”

“It’s what I’ve always done since I wasn’t allowed medical care.”

"What did you do when you didn’t have B-5?”

“I’d use a lighter, normally.” Logan’s face twisted in disgust. Virgil leaned away lightly, not liking to see Logan like that.

“You used a lighter because your parents didn’t allow you medical care?” Logan’s tone didn’t really express the fact that it was a question, but Virgil nodded anyway. Logan continued to treatment on the wound as his face dropped. “No wonder you have so many.” There was a beat. Virgil wasn’t sure he wanted to respond to that.

The two sat in silence as Logan rewrapped the wound. It was peaceful but the underlying boiling rage was just below the surface. Virgil understood why, it was hard not to, but Virgil would have to go back to them after this was over. There was no way he could stay away from them after what he did just yesterday. Sure, he wished he could stay with Logan, but that wasn’t gonna happen.

Virgil barely noticed as the world slipped between his fingers. Noises became muffled. Logan touching his wound became a dull comfort. Virgil’s mind drifted to what happened with his parents. His parents _shot_ him. It didn’t seem that odd when he was young. But parents aren't supposed to do that. Virgil didn’t need to have the life he did. Would he have even ended up with Janus without them?

Janus… Janus, Janus, _Janus_. It always came back to him. Virgil didn’t want to be with him. He never wanted to be. Janus offered him a _fake_ promise of safety. What did Virgil really get? An abusive boyfriend that treated him like a girl and not even that promise of safety. Why couldn’t Virgil just _leave_?

“Virgil, stay with me.” Logan’s voice snapped Virgil out of his trance. Virgil looked at Logan with crying eyes. Why did Logan have to be a Protector?

"Logan?”

“What’s wrong, Star?” Virgil felt a couple more tears fall at the new nickname.

“Why?”

“Why, what?” Logan looked confused, but concern overshadowed it.

"Why are you so nice to me?” Virgil felt his head get pulled onto Logan’s shoulder.

“Because you deserve it.” Virgil couldn’t stop crying. Deserved? What had Virgil done to deserve anything? He hadn’t even followed through on his promise yet. As if the world decided Virgil couldn’t have a moment that wasn’t full of despair, Virgil’s phone went off.

> Janus: You disappeared after we had fun.
> 
> Janus: Then you were gone for Friday night and Saturday.
> 
> Janus: And now you're gone today.
> 
> Janus: Monday.
> 
> Janus: C-8 during lunch.
> 
> Janus: Be there.

Virgil felt bile rise in his throat. What was Janus planning? What could be worse than what he already did?

“Star? Is something wrong?” Virgil wordlessly held up his phone, his hand shaking wildly. Logan’s face shifted to the rage that had been brewing. “What do you plan to do?” Virgil found the question odd but answered.

“I don’t have a choice. I _have_ to go see him.”

“Don’t you have your Presents?” Virgil found the topic change jarring and Logan’s tone was nothing short of intimidating.

“I mean, yes, but he has C-8. I wouldn’t stand a chance.” C-8 was the Present that could manipulate thoughts and/or the way someone felt about someone or something. Virgil wouldn’t be able to do much with that. Logan sighed and grabbed Virgil’s hands. He seemed to like doing that.

“C-8 only works if your mind is open to it. On top of that, I could go with you.” Virgil lifted his head off of Logan’s shoulder to look him in the eyes.

“You really don’t have to.” Logan tightened his grip on Virgil’s hands.

“I want to.” Virgil stood up, Logan’s hands falling off of his. Virgil’s hands had never felt so cold before. Logan looked disappointed. Just the look on his face was enough to Virgil rethink what he was about to say, but he needed to say what was on his mind.

“Logan, you don’t have to do that for me. Janus is an absolute asshat, but I don’t wanna drag you into this. I can’t stand the thought of you having to deal with Janus just because… just because I won’t leave.” Virgil hugged himself tightly. He could see Logan stand up and make his way over to him. Virgil flinched away slightly. Logan looked so hurt, but Virgil couldn’t drag him into it. He just couldn’t. 

“Remember what I said earlier today? I am your Protector. Even if you don’t want to drag me into this, it’s still my job.” Logan kept his distance to Virgil. Virgil raised his head slightly to look into Logan’s eyes.

“And if you get hurt?”

“It happens.” Logan took a couple more steps towards Virgil. “Please let me help you.” Virgil nodded slightly, slightly messing with the edges of the bandages. Virgil may have promised to help them, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t help him as well. “Careful with the bandages. You’ll rip them off.” Logan lightly rested his hand on Virgil’s injured shoulder.

“Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. It’s alright.” Logan led Virgil over to the bed once more. “You should sit. Food should be ready soon.” Virgil nodded and practically fell onto the bed. Just the thought of Janus could make him exhausted. How pathetic. Virgil shrugged on his hoodie and played with the ends of the sleeves. Logan left the room to most likely check on the food.

Virgil, in the moment of silence, and also trying to calm himself, looked around the room. The room was mostly dark blue with hints of black and other neutral colors. There was a desk with a computer, which seemed to be open to some school project, and a whole bunch of books. There was also a bookshelf, but the desk seemed to hold a good 2/5ths of his book collection. Logan totally seemed like the type to read a lot. Virgil smiled and tried to read the titles of some of them, just to see what Logan liked to read. A lot of the books were science-related, but a couple had titles of novels. He couldn’t tell what they were about, but they sounded interesting enough.

Logan came back a couple minutes later with two bowls of some sort of soup. Logan offered Virgil a bowl which he took. Logan sat at the desk, moving some of the books around to make a clear spot. Virgil took it slow while eating, not exactly trusting his hands. It was good, better than Virgil expected from soup, Still, Virgil wasn’t exactly hungry. Virgil pushed through about half the bowl before reaching his limit.

“Not hungry?”

“Not really. Sorry.” Virgil mumbled out, letting Logan take his bowl from him.

“It’s not your fault. A lot happened today.” Virgil didn’t make another comment as Logan left the room once more. A lot didn’t just happen today. Shit had happened this entire week. Virgil, being exhausted, deactivated his Present. He had a hoodie on, so it didn’t bother him too much, but after having a flat chest, being back to “normal” felt like an absolute punishment. Logan came back not a minute later. “You look exhausted. Do you want to go to bed now?” Virgil nodded slightly. 

“Where?”

“You can sleep here. I’ll be on the couch in the living room if you need me.” Virgil went to object, but he had already argued with Logan once today. Despite how stubborn Virgil was, Logan was arguably more stubborn. Logan left for the last time, turning off the lights behind him. Virgil was embraced by the darkness once more.

Virgil opened his phone, knowing full well that he wasn’t going to get to sleep anytime soon. He _was_ tired, but his brain wouldn’t stop racing with thoughts. Thoughts from what awaited him tomorrow with Janus to what happened that day. Music would help, which why he fumbled around the room with his flashlight on to try and find his headphones. They turned out to be on the desk. Virgil quickly snagged them and made his way back to the bed.

Virgil spent a solid minute trying to decide what music to play. He had many playlists and he didn’t know which one would actually calm him down. Definitely not the multitude of vent playlists he had. While they were great, it wasn’t exactly the vibe he was going for. He settled on a semi-chill playlist as he tried to calm himself down.

Virgil laid his phone in his lap as he rested against the wall. The thoughts of what was next still haunted his mind, but he slowly focused on his exhaustion to try and get _some_ sleep. As usual, when the world realized he was about to nod off, it reminded him that they had school tomorrow. He really should’ve pieced that together as soon as he got the text from Janus, but he was too focused on the fact that it was Janus to really process the rest.

Virgil tried to let the thought just pass through his mind without focusing on it, but his anxiety had other plans. There was too much to worry about for him not to. He didn’t have clothes, he had left school early on Friday, and the entire place reeked of memories. Virgil turned up the music to try and drown out the thoughts.

He needed sleep. From what had been decided today, he was going to have a fight the next day. The worst thing he could do would be tired. Virgil realized that his fight with Janus would actually be a great trial run of what fighting back against the Protectors would be like. Virgil smiled slightly at that. He could show Logan that Virgil _could_ fight.

Virgil laid himself down on the bed, finally feeling his thoughts giving up. Virgil was going to be fine. It was hard for him to fully believe that, but he had to. If he went into confronting Janus doubting himself, it wasn’t going to end well. Virgil closed his eyes and focused on the music once more. This time, he felt his consciousness slip into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit's about to go down.  
> Also, sorry that the end is so weird, or at least to me it is.  
> I didn't really know how to end it?


	7. Boiling Point

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, (because I don't know what to say,)  
> I have two playlists that I mainly write with.  
> The first is Smad which is edgy music because I am that bitch. (I'm an emo nightmare and we all know it.)  
> The second is not as predictable, (unless you've read any of my other fics really.) It's a Persona music playlist named AH. (I'm bad with names.)  
> Here's the links if you're curious:  
> Smad: <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJXvHY7ddVIWdnjiEJ4KAlpiMO1pMvYYZ>  
> AH: <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJXvHY7ddVIVyR4nQDCpIbKgPhqwvjLcj>

Virgil walked with Logan to meet up with their friends. Virgil wore his black ripped jeans, but Logan had given him an old shirt to wear underneath the hoodie. It barely fit Virgil, it hung off his frame a decent amount, but it worked. Virgil had H-1 activate, partly because he wanted it, but partly because he didn’t have another option.

The two eventually made it to the courtyard where the rest were waiting. Virgil unconsciously touched his injured shoulder. Did Logan tell the others what happened? Virgil didn’t know if he wanted Logan to have told them or not. One way or another they would find out. Logan must’ve noticed that Virgil was overthinking his life again as he started walking closer to Virgil.

“Everything alright you two?” Patton asked, meeting them half-way. Logan opened his mouth to answer, but Virgil answered before he could.

“Relatively.” Patton gave him a worried look but nodded as they walked to meet the rest of the group. Remy and Roman were talking about something as Virgil and Logan settled into the group. Virgil was tempted to tell them about what was about to happen but decided against it. They would just insist to help like Logan did. While it was probably better that he have _someone_ help him fight, he wasn’t going to let _all_ of them help him. 

He didn’t even know what to expect. Janus clearly had a plan up his sleeve, but Virgil couldn’t figure it out. Was he going to try and one-up himself? How? It wasn’t like they were just gonna have a talk. Would other people be there? How many people would see the “Presentless” boy use his Present? There goes that entire secret. Virgil didn’t really mind it getting out there, but it was a little daunting. It was well worth it though. If revealing his secret meant he could deck Janus in the face, he would take it without a second thought.

The group shared some small talk before the bell rang. Virgil quickly headed to classes, slipping in-between crowds like he usually did. Halls were small and cramped, but Virgil could usually slip between people and get to his classes in a decent amount of time. It wasn’t because he wanted to get to his classes, he couldn’t give less of a shit, but because he hated the halls with a burning passion. He wouldn’t hate them as much if people just _moved_.

Virgil slipped into the classroom and slunk into his seat. Virgil pulled out a notebook that was supposed to be for classes, but it was really just a doodle notebook. Even after all the shit he’d been through, drawing never left as an escape. At the beginning of the year teachers yelled at him to stop, but they gave up at this point. Virgil got good enough grades which is all that really mattered to him.

Virgil began drawing as the bell rang. He didn’t pay much, if any, attention to the lesson. The teacher droned on and on about the same thing as if everyone in the room was an idiot. There really wasn’t a point to listening to that. Virgil sketched things ranging from night skies to strange, dark monsters.

Virgil’s mind drifted to Janus as he drew. Unlike every other time this would happen, when he was afraid and on the edge of a panic attack, this time he was composed. He was still slightly panicked about what would happen, but Janus wasn’t _that_ strong if you took away his ability to use his Presents. Sure, he could still put up a fight, but Virgil had a multitude of Presents at his disposal and he had Logan on his side. While he had never seen Logan fight, being a Protector was still a sign that you were out of most people’s league in terms of power. Not that being a Protector was actually a good thing, but Virgil didn’t really know a lot about that.

Though, was Virgil actually gonna be able to fight off Janus' Presents? He had been under their influence so much over the past 2 years. Did Presents even work in that way? Probably not. Virgil set down his pencil to try and clear his head. What happened to being confident? Virgil ran a hand through his hair. There was no point worrying now. He would soon find out one way or another.

The rest of the day leading up to lunch was uneventful, to say the least. Nothing really happened. Virgil drew in each class, even though he probably shouldn’t have, and that was about it. Nevertheless, he was stood in front of C-8 waiting for Logan to get there so that they could “talk” to Janus, but they both knew it was going to turn into a fight. Virgil didn’t even know what their plan _was_. They decided in the morning that Virgil was going to break up with Janus, about fucking time, but how was never decided.

Virgil sighed. He really didn’t know how to even start a conversation like that. Janus wouldn’t accept it anyway. That’s why it was going to turn into a fight. Virgil was leaving no matter what, which meant he had to get past the obstacle of Janus.

“You alright, Star?” Virgil looked over to Logan who had appeared beside him. He must’ve zoned out.

“Yeah. Just a little nervous.”

“Understandable.” A pause. “Do you want to head in now?” Virgil nodded and began to open the door. Better to rip off the bandage now instead of waiting. Inside the room, Janus was waiting with two other people. Virgil recognized them slightly. They were lackies of Janus and did whatever he said.

“You brought someone else?” Virgil glared as Janus spoke. Just hearing his voice now wanted to make Virgil throw him across a room. He would deserve it anyways.

“We need to talk.” Virgil walked further into the room. Logan walked behind him, closing the door behind himself. Janus straightened himself up and began to walk towards Virgil. Janus practically stared him down as he walked towards him.

“You have no idea what you’re starting with that.”

“Actually, I have every idea. We’re through.” Janus snarled as Virgil finished his statement.

“You _need_ me. If you leave, you know what’ll happen to you.” Logan stepped in front of Virgil and stared down Janus. Logan was actually quite a bit taller than Janus.

“That is where you’re wrong. He doesn’t need someone who abuses and uses him. He has actual friends to protect him.” Virgil stepped to the side to see Janus' face. He looked absolutely pissed.

“What would _you_ know? You’ve known her for less than a week. I’ve known her far longer than that.” Virgil flinched lightly at the misgendering. Janus never gave up with it.

“I know _him_ well enough to know that you have only hurt him.” Logan growled back at Janus. Virgil walked further to the side. Janus was ready to strike by the look of it and Virgil wasn’t going to let the first hit go to Logan.

“The _only_ reason I dated you was because you offered a false sense of safety. Every day I was beaten half to death, and you offered safety for dating you. You _never_ held this up. You hit me whenever something was wrong by your standards. You degraded me for things I have no control over. You misgender and harass me on a daily. To top it all off, you took advantage of my body because you were angry. No matter what you say or do, we are _done_.” A fist connected with his jaw. There it was. Virgil scattered back, cradling his jaw slightly. Despite the fact that it hurt like a bitch, Virgil smirked.

“Are you okay, Virge?” Logan walked over to him looking worried.

“I’m fine.” Virgil wiped his mouth. Janus had a strong punch; he’ll give him that. There was slight blood that leaked out of his mouth and stained his hand. Virgil activated his shields and got ready to fight. Logan seemed to notice what Virgil was planning and got himself ready to fight. Janus held his glare and motioned for the two other people to walk forward.

“So you’re using your Present, huh? Finally have the guts to stand up for yourself?” Virgil tensed, but raised his arms slightly.

“You’re only trying to use it against me because you’re scared.” Virgil straightened himself up and looked Janus dead in the eyes. “You’re literally shaking.” Janus glared back at Virgil, maintaining eye contact for a couple seconds before grunting and looking away.

“Don’t hold back. I have no need for her anymore.” Even to the end, Janus refused to use the correct pronouns. He had some serious pride issues which was made all the clearer with this. The two people walked forward, activating their own Presents. Fire and something that wasn’t visible. The glowing eyes made it clear that they activated it. Eyes glowed when a Present was first activated, but it disappeared after a few seconds. The only exception was when it was a passive Present. Like Patton’s C-5 Present.

“Careful. We don’t know who we’re dealing with.” Logan nodded slowly. The two men made their way over to Logan and Virgil. Virgil readied himself for the unknown Present. A couple seconds later a fist came hurling towards him. Virgil quickly raised his shield and tried to read his Present before he raised his fist and swung again. The punch was harder as he anticipated as he raised his second shield to dodge the incoming fist. It was probably a variation of A-1 which was an increase of strength.

Virgil slid back as the man pushed further with his fists. Okay, it was definitely a variation of A-1. Virgil broke from the standoff and jumped over to the left. Shields and fists would not be enough to take the man down. Virgil deactivated J-3 and went to plan B. Plan B was just throw elemental attacks and hope that it did something. Virgil activated E-8 as the man approached. Lightning crackled around Virgil’s hand as he took a second to aim. Lightning struck right beside the man as Virgil lowered his hand. He didn’t want to aim it directly at him to not injure him too severely.

“That’s the best you got?” The man threw himself at Virgil, landing a blow to his gut. Virgil stumbled back a bit but struck lightning down again in hopes of hitting him. Luckily, it hit his arm. Virgil took a second to breathe as the man looked over his injured arm. A red lightning pattern burn was decorating his arm. That would definitely leave a scar until it got healed.

Virgil readied himself as the man, with less finesse this time, threw himself at Virgil once more. Virgil quickly deactivated E-8 and activated B-5. His purple flames engulfed his hands as he grabbed the man’s fist. Virgil couldn’t help the feeling of guilt when the man screamed as his hand burned. Virgil quickly retracted and deactivated B-5.

“You little bitch!” Virgil activated B-6 in a rush as the man once again ran towards Virgil. Virgil aimed a concentrated blast of water to the ground in front of the man. As he hoped, the man slipped on it and fell backward, hitting his head and blacking out. Virgil felt sympathy for the bastard. Virgil looked over to Logan who had also taken care of the man that had gone after him. Virgil was sort of disappointed that he didn’t get to see any of Logan’s Presents, but was more relieved that the guy he had fought only had one Present. It could’ve been a lot messier if he would’ve had more.

“I’m leaving, Janus. You’re not going to be able to stop me.” Virgil saw Janus' yellow eyes glow before he felt a sharp pain in his head. Ah, right, C-7. Virgil stood strong and walked towards Janus. “You have no power over me.” Virgil looked Janus in the eyes. The pain migrated from his head to his gut, but he ignored it still. “Try all you want to make me beg, make me cry, hold a fake promise over my head. Try all you want to try and get me back, but nothing will work. And if you want to hurt me because of it know that this is all your fault.” Virgil took another step forward. “You created this mess.” Virgil turned around and walked out of the room with Logan.

“Are you okay?” Virgil nodded, but slightly leaned into Logan’s side. He was tired. He had switched between multiple Presents while keeping H-1 active. Logan hesitantly wrapped an arm around Virgil’s waist. Virgil flinched slightly, but relaxed when he realized it was Logan. “We should talk to the others through texts.” Virgil gave a noise of agreement and pulled out his phone.

> Virgil: Dumped the bastard.
> 
> Virgil: We had to fight two people, me and Logan, but we're okay. 
> 
> Roman: Are you hurt???
> 
> Logan: We're fine.
> 
> Logan: Virgil is exhausted, and we have a few bruises, but we're fine.
> 
> Patton: I wish I was there to heal you two!
> 
> Remy: At least you dumped the bastard. 
> 
> Remy: Do you need to tap out today too?
> 
> Virgil: No.
> 
> Virgil: I'm fine.

Virgil put his phone away and leaned closer to Logan. Virgil was close to passing out, but he could make it through the day. Virgil was glad that Logan came because there was no way he would’ve been able to take on both of the men.

“You handled your Present really well. Have you fought with it before.”

“Not really. I’m trying to get better though.” Virgil left out the reason why he wanted to get better at using his Present.

“I’m always open to helping you if you need it.” Virgil nodded slightly. Virgil knew he wouldn’t stand a chance against Logan right now, but the idea of sparring with him sounded fun. Though, they would definitely need Patton there to heal them after they were done.

“That sounds fun.” Virgil smiled almost drunkenly. The exhaustion was really making him loopy. Logan ruffled his hair slightly.

“You sound so tired. You sure you’re gonna be okay?” Virgil nodded.

“’m tired, but I’m okay. I just… I’m so glad to finally be free.” Logan gave him a warm smile.

“That makes two of us.” Virgil smiled at Logan’s sentiment, but the bell rang. Virgil slinked out of Logan’s arms, though he was disappointed to have to. Virgil made his way to his class but stopped as he turned the corner.

Oh.

 _Oh_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger time?  
> Cliffhanger time.


	8. The Weed in the Garden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took far too long.  
> I am truly sorry for that.  
> I hope that this chapter works though.  
> Also! It took me a solid 20 minutes to get a picture in the chapter so I hope it was worth it. It's not even funny how much effort I put into it. I was literally on a Discord call losing my goddamn mind.  
> Oh! And Remus is finally here! We love our gremlin boy!

Virgil looked over the dead, mangled body in the hall. A group of students surrounded, but the hall was still fairly empty. More than a couple teachers were trying to get ahold of the situation, but none of them were really making any difference in the worried whispers surrounding the body. Virgil felt his body freeze as he looked over the body. He didn’t recognize him, but it was too hard to even get a grasp of what he looked like.

Virgil, out of the corner of his eye, saw Remus walk away from the scene. If anyone knew anything, it would be Remus. Virgil followed him through the hall to the door. Virgil picked up the pace, to catch up before he left the hall.

“Hey!” Virgil skid to stop as Remus turned around quickly. He looked confused for a moment before his face settled on a slightly amused expression.

“Virgil, huh. Let me guess, you want to know what happened?” Before Virgil could respond, Remus motioned to him and led him to a classroom. Virgil was confused but played along. Remus definitely knew something if he was dragging Virgil into a separate room to talk. Remus sat on a table in the room. Virgil stood a couple feet away.

“What happened?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. Saw the bastard leave our class early, next thing I knew he was a bloody mess on the ground.”

“But lunch was before this.” Something didn’t add up.

“You’re sharp. That excuse got past the teachers.”

“I guess they’re overwhelmed.” Virgil took a second to formulate his next question. “Why come up with an excuse?”

“You think I murdered him, don’t you? I didn’t. The kid staged it.” Virgil recoiled back.

“What does that mean?”

“The kid, David, had some shit on him. If he died, all of that would disappear.” Remus explained casually as if he wasn’t exposing something that was definitely going to start something.

“Can you elaborate?” Virgil was pushing it, Remus didn’t like explaining things, but he needed to know. He couldn’t squash his curiosity.

“Sure. David was part of this big scheme to destroy… something? I don’t know too much about that. He explained it, but it was boring. The death is the interesting part anyway. So, to hide it he took one for his whole team. They figured a death would distract everyone long enough to let them destroy the thing. So here’s how he died-“

“I don’t need to know that.” Virgil quickly interrupted. Hearing the details of how David died would no doubt send him into a panic attack. It would be best to avoid that.

“But that’s the fun part! Oh well. That’s all I really know.” Before Virgil could fully process what he had been told, a teacher walked into the classroom. Why had Virgil not expected that?

“What are you two doing here?”

“We were just talking ma’am. We’ll be leaving now.” Remus stated, standing up and walking towards the door. Virgil quickly followed, not wanting to be left alone with the teacher. As soon as the door closed behind them, Remus spoke again. “We should split up. We’re definitely on her radar.” Virgil nodded and made his way to a different hall than Remus. There hadn’t been an announcement that school was over yet, so Virgil simply waited against a wall. It would come soon enough.

“Good afternoon students. We regret to inform you that a student has been murdered on campus. Please return home for the day. If you have any information, please come to the office. Thank you.” Virgil was about to shove his phone is his pocket when he got a text from Logan.

> Logan: Since you are not heading home, would you care to spend another night at my house?
> 
> Virgil: That sounds good.
> 
> Virgil: We should probably get more of my clothes though.
> 
> Logan: That is important. 
> 
> Logan: Where should we meet up?
> 
> Virgil: Just outside the school works. 

Virgil shoved his phone the pocket of his jeans and began walking to the front of the school. He _did_ need to get some of his clothes, but he also had a feeling that he had something related to David’s death. He wasn’t about to go to the school staff even if he did have info. Whatever was happening was clearly beyond the school and they would _definitely_ assume that Virgil had something to do with the “murder.”

“Who do you think did it?”

“Who knows? It’s scary though.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure the police will catch them before they get to anyone else.”

“We can hope.”

Virgil heard the idle whispers of students walking through the halls. So, the news that it wasn’t a murder wasn’t out yet. Though, Virgil doubted that news would ever come to light. From the sounds of it, Remus only knew because he was acquainted with David. Virgil highly doubted Remus would tell anyone else either. It was lucky that he even told Virgil. Virgil rounded the corner to see Logan leaning against the wall waiting for him. Virgil quickly made his way up to him to greet Logan.

“Hey, Lo.” Logan looked away from his book to look at Virgil. Virgil smiled slightly, resting his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie.

“Ah, there you are. I was beginning to worry about you.” Virgil must’ve really been lost in thought if he was worried about Virgil even though they had texted to meet up.

“Sorry about that. I was just… thinking, ya know?” Logan nodded slightly, putting his book away in his bag.

“About the murder?”

“Well, about that, I actually have some info on what happened. And before you ask, no, I am not going to tell the staff about it.” Virgil and Logan began to walk towards Logan’s car. Logan didn’t seem shocked at all by what Virgil had just said.

“Fair enough. What info did you get?” Virgil relayed what Remus had told him as they walked towards the car. Logan didn’t react to most things Virgil said, but Virgil could tell by the looks in his eyes that he was interested and was dissecting each word. Virgil hesitated on telling Logan that he had an idea of what their scheme was. Virgil decided that if he found what he was looking for he would tell Logan.

“So, yeah, that’s that.” They were at the car by the time Virgil was done explaining.

“So, Remus knows what happened?” Virgil knew that he was actually supposed to answer that, Logan knew the answer, but Virgil guessed it was surprising to hear that Remus knew exactly what was happening. Remus was an elusive figure. He was around the school, sure, but no one was really friends with him, nor did anyone know what was going on through his head. “C’mon let’s get to your house.” Virgil nodded and got into Logan’s car. Virgil was the only one of the friend group that couldn’t drive or have a car. Damnit.

The ride to Virgil’s house was short and silent. Neither of them talked and his house was only a 10 minute walk which translated to a 5 minute drive. Logan parked the car in the driveway as neither of his parents was home. Thank god.

“Do you want me to come in with you?”

“That’d be helpful.” Virgil resisted the urge to just say please like he had so many times before. Logan nodded and walked up with Virgil to the front door. Virgil hesitated on opening the door. Why was he so scared? It was just a house. He had entered the door so many times before. So many times he would open the door expecting to be beaten, degraded, and whatever else was in store for that day. Why was he scared now when his parents weren’t even home? Why was he shaking when he had nothing in store for him?

“Virgil, are you okay?” Logan asked, concerned. Virgil shook his head lightly.

“I- I don’t know.” Virgil trailed off as he held himself in his arms. Logan set his hand on Virgil’s shoulder.

“We can come back tomorrow if you can’t do this today.”

“No!” Virgil flinched at how loud he was. “No.” He repeated, quieter this time. “I need to do this today.” Logan looked concerned but nodded slightly. Virgil, trying to prove that he could do it, opened the door. He was greeted with the usual mess. Virgil led Logan inside to his room. There were 2 things he needed to get. Clothes and a notebook of his. Logan seemed confused when Virgil threw a black leather-bound notebook at him.

“What-“

“I’ll explain later. Just… hold onto it.” Logan nodded, but stared suspiciously at it. Knowing Logan, he was probably resisting the urge to look inside of it. Virgil looked through the small amount of clothes he had to try and pick out some that were wearable. A lot were wearable but stained and just generally not pleasing to look at. There were a couple items he didn’t mind wearing while trying to make a new life for himself, but it wasn’t much. Virgil grabbed his binder, 2 shirts, and another pair of ripped jeans. Virgil wanted to take a hoodie, but the only good one was the one he was currently wearing.

“Is that all?” Virgil nodded and folded the clothes into a small stack. Logan looked over the selection briefly. “That’s not a lot. You should go clothes shopping with someone eventually.”

“That sounds nice.” Virgil softly said, grabbing the small pile of clothes. He walked with Logan back to the car who set the clothes in the backseat before handing the notebook back to Virgil. Virgil took it graciously and sat in the front seat once more. As Logan started the car and began to head towards his house, Virgil flipped through the pages of the notebook. It was just as he remembered it to be. There were some personal entries in it, but the important info was all coded. The code was so that his parents wouldn’t be able to read it if they ever found it. Later that concern also translated to Janus. Luckily, neither of them ever found the notebook.

“I assume that notebook has some important info if you coded it.” Virgil was surprised until he realized that Logan could most likely see the reflection in the mirror.

“Well, I didn’t want any else reading it, but I don’t specifically remember what was in it.” Virgil set the notebook in his lap, open to the page he was examining before. “Then again, my memory is pretty spotty right now.”

“That makes enough sense. Do you remember the code?”

“Yeah.” Virgil was going to elaborate, but it wasn’t exactly worth explaining exactly how he hid the key. Virgil picked up the notebook and flipped to the first page. On it was a paragraph of coded words and nothing else.

Beneath the code was a small 3. Virgil had apparently decided that a coded version of the key was the safest way to keep whatever information was written within hidden. Virgil quickly decoded the paragraph into the phone. It was mainly just concerning of actually being able to decode the thing. The first sentences were just setting up what the notebook was. “My name is Virgil Storm. You either know what this is or are trying to figure that out.” The 3rd was the actual key it started with the words side note, but the actual key was “back in June we delivered oxygen equipment of the same size.” A sentence with all the letters. It was a dumb plan, but Virgil actually remembered it, so it worked. It also was there to make sure that Virgil could reference all the letters when writing.

Virgil closed his phone as they approached Logan’s house. He would continue decoding when they got inside. Logan and Virgil quickly made their way into the house and into Logan’s room. Virgil quickly opened the notebook to continue decoding. Logan, this time, was looking over it and making the process faster. The last bit read “Make no sense? Well, it shouldn’t. You’ll figure it out soon enough. Maybe. I’m sure I'm the only one that will figure this out. I hope I remember this. This shit is important. I can’t just have the key though. Let’s hope.”

“So that was your way of having a key? It’s smart enough. Easy to forget, but it is better than having a key.” Virgil nodded swiftly as he flipped through pages to find the next coded page.

“I’m lucky that I remembered what it was.” Virgil landed on a page and began decoding as soon as he saw it. It was formatted better than the last one.

“Helen and Hunter Storm are involved in a project called Ledas. What Ledas is right now, I can’t tell. Ledas seems to have to do with Protectors. What side Ledas is on is really vague. The best thing I have is this quote

“Ledas is a project to prove that Protectors have to do with the spread of Sub-Presents.

“Sub-Presents seem to be what “gut feelings” are really when they have to do with Presents. Basically, from what information I can gather right now, when someone can tell something with Presents that is called a Sub-Present.

“The quote is from a paper with more information, but all I could get was the single quote. Ledas, for right now, seems to be neutral. How Protectors are connected, or not connected, to Sub-Presents or even what Ledas truly is, is undetermined.” Virgil set down his phone slowly when he and Logan finished the translation.

“Do you think Ledas has to with what David’s group is trying to destroy?” Logan asked looking at the notebook with unmoving eyes. Virgil’s glazed over the translation once again. There was no doubt in his mind.

“Definitely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... I just realized that Ledas would be pronounced "lettuce." That makes this a lot less big of a reveal, doesn't it?  
> Anyway!  
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter.  
> What is Ledas?  
> Are the Protectors good or bad?  
> Do they have to do with "Sub-Presents"?  
> Find out soon!


	9. The Cards Life Gives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a playlist for this fic:  
> [Alone For Another Night Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJXvHY7ddVIW3y-KX7UN3BVhvXR753Ov5)  
> Music is to be added as this continues!  
> Also, sorry that it keeps taking so long to update. I had to take a moment to plan out what I was doing with Ledas.
> 
> Update on my feelings about Janus:  
> I like him more now, even though I'm still wary. Even with that, he is still going to be Virgil's crazy ex and a bad guy. This is mainly because I don't want to put an OC in that big of a role. There are already so many OCs that are going to pop up and play a role. For example, the parents and David. Janus is just the best fit. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Virgil sat at Logan’s desk with the notebook. It had been a couple of hours since they had read about Ledas. Virgil was reading entries that weren’t coded. It was a trip. He hadn’t realized just how much he had written in the notebook. Just how many things he’d confess to paper, but not himself. Logan was in another room talking to Patton and Roman talking about everything that had just happened.

Virgil tried desperately to remember what Ledas was without the coded entries, but he just couldn’t. It shouldn’t have been that surprising. If he didn’t remember before or while he was decoding it, why would he remember after? It was still extremely annoying, but it made sense in a way. Virgil flicked through one last page before Logan walked back into the room with an exacerbated sigh.

“Something wrong?”

“Just that fact that this made everything a lot more complicated.” Logan grumbled leaned over the back of the chair to see the notebook. Virgil nodded and glazed over the page quickly before shutting it.

“Did Patton and Roman know anything about Ledas?” Logan shook his head and sat down on the bed. He rested his head on his hands.

“Patton knew nothing and neither did Roman. However, Roman did say he would ask Remus and get bad to us.”

“Why would Roman be the one to ask Remus?”

“Roman is Remus’ twin.” That… made enough sense. They looked similar, but did that mean Remus was a Protector? He doubted it. Remus was… well, he was Remus. Then again, just because they were siblings didn’t mean that they were guaranteed to be comparable in power.

“Ah. I’m not sure if Remus would know anything though. When I talked to him, he said that it had been explained to him, but that he didn’t retain any of it.”

“Better than a shot in the dark though.” Logan made a point. Virgil made his way over to the bed and sat next to Logan. School would most likely continue the next day. Would the school try and interrogate students? Virgil knew a lot, but he wouldn’t tell any of it to the school. What would they do with the information about Ledas? Virgil wasn’t even sure what side of the fight they fell on. Side of the fight? There was a fight?

“What’s our next step?” Virgil asked, messing with his sleeves. There was a moment of silence. So, Logan didn’t know what they were gonna do either.

“We could decode the rest of the notebook. Having all the information possible would be nice. However,” Logan took a small pause, “It might be smart to gather all the information before we decode another entry.”

“Information about what?”

“Protectors, Ledas, anything really. The more information we have, the better.” Virgil nodded softly. He trusted that Logan knew what he was talking about. Virgil wanted to just decode the notebook, but it wouldn’t have all the answers to their questions. Putting all their prior knowledge together would mean they wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on Virgil’s old notes. Virgil pulled out his phone and put together a group chat.

> Virgil: I'm sure you've all heard, but we found out about Ledas from old coded notebook entries. 
> 
> Virgil: However, before we decode more entries, we want to pull together all the info about Protectors, Ledas, etc. 
> 
> Virgil: Honestly, just spit out anything you can think of. 
> 
> Roman: Anything?
> 
> Logan: Anything. We can filter out the information we don't need later.
> 
> Remus: Where to start?

"You have Remus' number?" Logan asked as he looked up from his phone.

"Yeah. I talk to him every once in a while." Logan seemed satisfied enough with Virgil's answer as that's where the conversation ended. 

> Patton: This might be common knowledge, but kids who don't even have their Presents can become Protectors under certain circumstances. 
> 
> Virgil: Certain circumstances?
> 
> Logan: Yes. If the parents have a strong background, which most likely means they are Protectors, they can admit their kid/kids before they develop their Present (11-14.)
> 
> Remus: You can also get kicked.
> 
> Roman: You would know, wouldn't you?
> 
> Virgil: Alright, I'm lost again.
> 
> Roman: Both me and Remus were admitted when we were 5, but Remus got himself kicked for being too unstable. 
> 
> Remus: It's not my fault they couldn't handle me.
> 
> Patton: It's for the better any way. You want to leave too, don't you, Roman?
> 
> Roman: I mean, yeah. Just not kicked out.
> 
> Roman: That's such a lame way to go out.
> 
> Logan: You've recommended we got out in a rebellion more times than I care to count. 
> 
> Logan: Honestly, getting kicked out seems far more reserved and normal than that.
> 
> Roman: But we actually are going out in a rebellion, aren't we?
> 
> Patton: Only if the cards fall that way.
> 
> Patton: I would rather not go out with violence. 
> 
> Virgil: When were the rest of you admitted?
> 
> Logan: I was 8 and Patton was 12.
> 
> Patton: I had my Presents when they approached me. 
> 
> Virgil: I don't know if that makes it better or worse.
> 
> Remus: How about borse? 
> 
> Logan: You mean börse? The German word for stock market? 
> 
> Remus: No! Borse, as in better and worse put together! 
> 
> Logan: Why would I expect any more from you?
> 
> Virgil: Back on track you guys.
> 
> Virgil: Is there anything else anyone can think of? 
> 
> Remus: There's a 3rd organization or whatever in this whole thing.
> 
> Virgil: There's a WHAT?
> 
> Remus: Yeah. I don't know shit though. Just heard from David that there was another one. 
> 
> Logan: Do you know anything at all?
> 
> Remus: I heard from someone else that they were supposed good guys, but that's probably bullshit. 
> 
> Remus: There aren't really good and bad guys here.
> 
> Remus: There's a corrupted government system, a morally grey project trying to "unveil the truth," and some 3rd one that falls into the mix one way or another.
> 
> Remus: But what do I know!

Virgil set his phone down on his lap lightly. So, it was more complicated than they first thought. It just _had_ to be more complicated. Why would it be simple? That would make their lives easier and they couldn’t have that, now could they?

“Star? Are you alright?” Virgil faced Logan and gave him a small smile.

“I’m alright. Just disappointed that it’s so convoluted.” Logan nodded as he pulled a small journal out of one of the drawers of his desk.

“We’ll figure this out eventually. For now,” Logan sat down on the desk chair, facing Virgil, “We should review all that we know.” Virgil and Logan wrote down everything they could think of. Logan adding some things that hadn’t been disused. Like the fact that the average rate of people per Protector was 15:1.Virgil also added that he kinda remembered that there was some war between the 3 organizations. By the time they were finished, the sun had set.

“That should be about it,” Virgil commented, looking at the long list they had put together. They knew a lot more than Virgil thought they did, but it still wasn’t nearly enough. Logan nodded and set the journal next to the open notebook. They would definitely need to decode more entries to unravel everything.

Remus brought up an interesting point though. It was unlikely that there was simply the bad guys and the good guys. Virgil didn’t know David personally, but they shared a few classes. He never gave off any bad vibes. With that being said, from the entries, his parents had been involved with Ledas. Hell, they might still be. They were by no means good people. Whose side should they really be on? Not Protectors. Logan, Roman, and Patton were all trying to get away and Virgil wasn’t going to join. Were the 3rd group the right option?

It was pretty meaningless to think about it before they decoded the rest of the notebook, but Virgil couldn’t help it. If they were going to get involved, they should know what side they were on. Did they even need to be on a side though? They could just be a neutral 4th party and do what they deem necessary. But they were going against _organizations_. One was part of the government for Christ’s sake. Would they even stand a chance if they were going at it alone?

Were they even gonna end up getting involved or fighting? When Virgil heard about it all, he wanted to get all the info he could. Now that he has the notebook though, would it be wise to stick their nose into it? They could end up fighting and even dying if they weren’t careful. Virgil made a promise though. He needed to keep his friends safe even if that meant putting himself in a situation that he could die in.

“You’re overthinking this, aren’t you?” Virgil was shaken out of his thoughts by Logan’s voice. Virgil was about to be embarrassed that he was yet again being shaken out of thoughts by Logan, but he stopped the feeling from taking its toll. Virgil was a spacey person, he just was. It wasn’t something to be embarrassed about.

“How could you tell?” Virgil questioned playfully, letting his back fall onto the bed. He was tired and Logan’s bed was surprisingly soft.

“Your eyes were glazed over. It’s not that hard to tell anymore.” Logan answered. Despite his blunt words, his voice had an edge of playfulness.

“Guess that’s fair. You’ve seen me through some pretty tough times.” Virgil’s voice slurred through his statement. He really was tired.

“That’s true, but I did see you stand up to Janus with a vigor I’ve never seen from you before. I’m glad to have gotten to see it.” Logan joined Virgil in lying on the bed horizontally. Virgil snorted softly before replying.

“I was scared deep down. I was so scared that I would fall under his Present and give up. That I would leave you. The feeling of freedom though was overwhelming. I finally realized it was _my_ life, ya know?”

“I get it. It was so inspiring to see you talking to him even though he was desperately trying to bring you to your knees. I’m… I’m really glad that you left him.” Virgil hummed softly in agreement. It was so satisfying to finally cut Janus off. He knew that Janus was going to try and talk to him again, but it was still such a huge step.

“It wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t there right beside me. Just having you in that room made me feel like anything was possible. Even fighting that dude. I had never fought like that before. I was scared I’d mess it up, but you were fighting beside me. You were fighting with me.”

“I want to always be there for you. From fighting side by side to helping with whatever problem that’s bothering you. That’s not the Protector talking either.” Virgil felt as their hands linked above them.

“And I want to be there for you. You’ve already done so much for me. Whatever you need, whenever you need it, I’ll be there. I swear.” Virgil meant every word he said. Virgil was dedicated to protecting everyone, especially Logan. He had been gifted a Present that made him stronger than he ever needed to be. He had to put it to good use somehow.

“Then it’s a deal. We’ll be there for each other no matter what.”

“No matter what.” Virgil relaxed into the bed. He really felt like an equal with Logan after that. Logan wasn’t protecting him because he thought Virgil wasn’t an equal. He was helping Virgil because Virgil meant something to him. Virgil was going to give everything he had to help Logan, help his friends. They all deserved the world. He had met them so recently, but they already accepted and helped him. Not to mention they were doing it because they wanted to. It wasn’t because he was some nuisance. Virgil let a soft smile fall over his face.

Maybe life wasn’t so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for all the texting. (^^;  
> I didn't want to have a scene where they met up somewhere just to have them leave right after they exchanged info.  
> Plus, this reflects my conversations even before quarantine.  
> You don't need to meet up to exchange info.  
> Also, no, Logan and Virgil aren't getting together anytime soon. They are both very much in love, but they're both idiots. Plus, Virgil just got out of a bad relationship.  
> No need to rush the ship.


	10. Friend or Foe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's been more than a week, so I'm back. I keep taking time to plan which weird. I never used to plan fics like this, but it's gotten to the point where it's hard not it.  
> This fic has really taken a life of its own. It's almost impressive.  
> Time for another OC. Sorry, but every already has a role and... yeah.

Virgil walked through the halls of the school with Logan. The school felt… different now. Virgil now knew that there was a group of students that was involved with a war happening between 3 organizations. From what Virgil could tell, they were part of Ledas, but that could be false. Virgil wasn’t really sure of anything. How could he be? They had just learned about so many things, half of which led to more questions that hadn’t been answered.

“What are our plans for today?” Virgil asked Logan as they neared the courtyard.

“Well, if Remus knows who’s in David’s group, I would love to talk to them. We should also decode more of the journal today.” Virgil nodded and clutched the leather-bound notebook closer to him. For some reason, he didn’t trust it out of his hands. It made no sense, as it would be safer in his bag. Yet, here he was.

“Sounds like a plan.” Virgil went to add more but realized he didn’t have anything else to say. Virgil and Logan were in a comfortable silence as they made their way to their friends. Among them, was Remus. Virgil couldn’t say he was surprised. He was honestly glad. Logan made a good point about trying to talk to David’s group.

“How are you two doing?” Patton asked excitedly, bonding over to them. Virgil couldn’t help the same smile that formed on his lips.

“We’re doing alright.” Virgil answered as he continued to walk towards the group. Patton and Logan walked with him.

“So, a war huh?” Remy asked surprisingly casual.

“Oh, right. I forgot to tell you-” Remy put his hand which caused Virgil to stop.

“It’s fine. A lot happened. Plus, I’m not exactly a lot of help in this. I don’t know shit about Protectors, Ledas, or whatever the 3rd one is.” Remy gave Virgil a bright smile. “But I can at least offer support.” Virgil nodded. Virgil didn’t think Remy knew how much support meant. Everything was gonna get confusing and difficult. Remy didn’t need to do anything to help besides be there.

“On that topic, Remus?” Remus perked up as Logan said his name. “Do you know anyone else that was involved with David?”

“I do!” Remus walked over and handed Logan a strip of paper. “I figured you would ask, so I pre-prepared his number. Kid goes by K.” K? Odd choice for a nickname, but it could’ve been a lot worse.

“Thank you.” Logan shoved the slip of paper into the pockets of his jeans. Virgil was tempted to say that they should text now, but it was probably better if they waited ‘til lunch. That way they could actually meet up to talk.

“No problem! Now, I need to go do something.” Before they could ask what, Remus was off.

“Sorry about him.” Roman sighed as he looked over at where Remus had walked off. Virgil laughed softly.

“There’s nothing to apologize for. Remus has actually been helping us.” Roman sighed once more and sat down on the grass. Virgil sat down with him, along with the others.

“I know, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be annoying.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong, but I’ve hung out with him enough to know that.”

“Sometimes I forget you’re friends with him.” Remy stated simply, leaning back into the grass.

“I didn’t even know you were friends with him.” Roman said, looking almost confused. Virgil understood why it could be confusing. He and Remus didn’t seem like people that would get along, but Remus had done nothing bad to Virgil. Sure, there was a joke here or there that wasn’t _great_ , but nothing that bad. The group’s chat was interrupted by the bell. Virgil was disappointed to have to go to classes, but it was for the best.

* * *

When lunch came, they were all worried. None of them knew what to expect. Virgil was the most worried of the group. He clutched onto his notebook. He hadn’t let go of it the whole day. He hadn’t decoded anything, he was too scared to in classes, but he couldn’t bring himself to trust it in his bag.

“I’m going to text him now. Anyone have any objections?” The few seconds of silence that came after the question gave Logan his answer. They all watched the texts as they happened.

> Logan: Hello, K. That is your name, right? I and a couple of others were hoping you could provide info on the whole “Ledas” thing. Were we right in hoping that?
> 
> K: You must’ve gone through a lot of effort to get all of that so fast.
> 
> K: You know about Ledas and have my number.
> 
> K: That’s pretty impressive.
> 
> K: I’ll humor you.
> 
> K: Meet me here.

Attached to the message was K’s location. Virgil was surprised by how well that went. He expected a bit more to be said before K would want to meet with them. Not that he wasn’t happy that he was wrong.

“Y’all can go on without me. I wouldn’t exactly have anything to add anyway.” Remy stated shrugging. Virgil understood why Remy wouldn’t be inclined to go, but he did miss his friend. However, Remy was right. This wasn’t exactly friends “hanging out.” This was beyond them in many ways. The fact that they were even getting involved this much put them in danger that they would never expect.

“We’ll let you know what we learn later.” Patton was the last person Virgil expected to say that, but Patton really did seem serious about it. With that, Virgil, Logan, Roman, and Patton made their way to the location K sent. It seemed to be on campus, but it wasn’t a place any of them found familiar. The walk there was uncomfortable, per se, but it wasn’t nice either. None of them knew what was to come, or how to prepare for it. Hell, the group was fine with one of their own, a kid, dying to get to their goal.

What even was their goal?

Eventually, they found themselves facing an abandoned storage unit. Logan moved forward to open to door. Virgil wanted to stop him but stopped his hand half-way. Even if it turned south, the more than capable of fighting. Though, Virgil didn’t know how many people would be there. Well, he wouldn’t have to wait long for that to be answered as Logan opened the door shortly after the thought crossed his mind.

“You actually came. You are more ballsy than I assumed.” The person who approached them was a taller guy with brown hair and threatening teal eyes. He oozed a kind of confidence that was hard to come by. It was confidence that seemed to come from a genuine place of skill. He was intimidating, but Virgil expected as much.

“You really thought we would tap out after texting you ourselves?” Logan asked with an edge Virgil had never heard before. With Janus, he just sounded pissed. Here, there was this edge of… assurance? Virgil didn’t know how to describe it. K scoffed slightly.

“When you put it that way, it does sound dumb.” K invited them in. Virgil found himself leaning against the wall of the storage unit. His instinct was to sit on the floor, but that didn’t seem like the right option in the situation they were in. Patton seemed to disagree as he sat on the floor immediately. Roman stood tall as did Logan. K leaned against the wall opposite to Virgil.

“You’re part of the group David was in, correct?” Roman asked pointedly, his arms crossed.

“Part of? I lead it.” K glared at the group slightly before continuing. “You really know nothing about us, huh?”

“Not really.” Virgil wanted to hate that Patton was so honest with K, but he meant well, and it _did_ get a response out of K.

“Well, at least you admit it. We are part of Ledas. You seem to have at least heard the name from your text. Ledas’ goal, and in turn _our_ goal, is to take down Protectors.”

“That’s your goal? Why did David have to die for that?” Virgil asked almost flabbergasted. Taking down Protectors as a whole wasn’t something Virgil wholly disagreed with, but someone dying for that? Distaste for Protectors as a system wasn’t an uncommon opinion by any means.

“David wanted, _needed_ , to die for our plans to work. Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made. Like war.” K seemed to be glaring down Virgil, but Virgil could tell there was an undertone to it. “Look, we are trying to destroy something very special to Protectors. We already know Protectors are here. Case in point,” K took a pause to gesture to the 3 Protectors in the room, “So precautions had to be made. If Protector headquarters found out what we trying to destroy and _why_ , they would have our heads in a minute.”

“How do know we’re Protectors?” Logan asked him, not seeming extremely fazed.

“It takes one to know one.” Before Virgil could question what that meant, K laughed slightly. “Sorry, that made no sense. I used to be one, that’s all.”

“What-”

“That’s for another time. You wanted info, right? I gave you some, but I assume you want something specific.” The topic change was obviously to get them off the topic of Protectors. Fair enough, but it wasn't graceful by any means.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about the 3rd group, would you?” Virgil thought it was worth a shot. Virgil assumed he had more info on Ledas in his coded entries, but he could guarantee he had nothing on the 3rd. Plus, it would be a bit odd if K didn’t know anything about one of the organizations in the war their fighting.

“Interesting thing to ask now that you know I’m a member of Ledas.” K shrugged once more; he was so casual. “I do have info on Vatra.” They got a name! Vatra, huh? “To give you the basics, Vatra is trying to take down Ledas because they only want to “reform” The Protectors. If you want my opinion, that horse shit.” K paused and held up his hands. “No offense.”

“None taken. We plan to leave anyways.” Logan finally leaned against the wall as Virgil was. K smirked slightly.

“Well, that’s a good sign.” K pushed himself off the wall and walked over to the group. “I noticed you had a notebook. I doubt that it’s just a normal notebook if it’s out in a conversation like this. Can I know what’s in it?” Virgil hesitated to tell K, he had just met him, but he had been honest with them thus far.

“It’s a bunch of coded entries from when I was young. They talk about Ledas and Protectors. I haven’t decoded all of them though.” K tilted his head slightly.

“Wouldn’t you know what they say if you wrote them?”

“It’s not that simple. I don’t remember a lot of my childhood, including what’s in here. Before you ask, it’s mostly Present use, but some of it can be chalked up to repression.”

“Present use?” Virgil sighed deeply before starting to explain.

“My parents used their Presents on me a lot, which caused me to forget a lot. This was amplified by someone else doing the same thing.” Virgil hated explaining why he couldn’t remember his childhood all that well, besides the memories that caused his Presents, but he was the one that brought it up. K’s eyes softened as Virgil finished explaining.

“That fucking sucks. I’m really sorry.” Virgil was surprised by the genuine words spoken. Virgil barely grasped Logan, Roman, and Patton being so nice to him. Why would a stranger be so kind? “You know, what if I offered you a deal?”

“What kind of deal?” Virgil questioned, genuinely curious.

“Well, you need info that we have, and we could use some extra hands. So, if you help us, we’ll help you. No obligations to join Ledas, though that would nice. Just help us destroy what we need to. Do we have a deal?” K put out his hand for Virgil to shake.

They needed info on Vatra badly, and they were being offered a chance to learn more about them and Ledas as they would be working with them. Virgil didn’t know if he liked the idea of working with Ledas though. The means they were taking to get to their goals were questionable at best. This was most likely their best option though. It was either that or try to find info some other place else. That would be unreliable at best, impossible at worst. It didn’t seem like there was an option. Virgil grasped K’s hand.

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a trip. This was fun to write!  
> I promise the next one will be longer. I hate that this one was this short.  
> Hope you enjoyed it anyways!


	11. A Second to Think

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I have 6 other fics I'm working on. This one does take priority most the time, but still. I'm trying. Anyway, We've passed the 10 chapter mark!  
> I was thinking about answering some questions in these notes from now on.  
> If you're interested here's the email:  
> NathanAlexanderWrites@gmail.com  
> It doesn't have to be about the fic! It can be about anything!  
> I know I don't have a big following, but hey, I thought it might be fun.

After the deal was made, the group went back to classes as if nothing had happened. It was odd, at least to Virgil, that they were involved with the “murder” that was still terrifying the school and just going about life as if nothing were happening. Though K did text Virgil some details about what the deal entailed. It was anything huge, but it was more details none the less.

Logan, Patton, and Roman were expected to give Ledas/K’s group about Protectors and they would give them info on Vatra. That would eventually lead to them helping K and the rest destroying what they needed to. It was simple, but it was also beneficial for both sides. It was odd that they needed info on Protectors though sense K said he had been one. Maybe they need more recent info? That still brought up the question of how he left in the first place.

Virgil resisted the urge to groan into the paper on his desk. They were too many questions with too little answers. There was nothing Virgil could do about until later, but it still ate at him. He normally couldn’t focus on classes, but there was no way with all the thoughts racing in his head. Even drawing seemed impossible. They all turned into something about what was happening. That or they had something to do with Janus which was almost worse. Some of them looked cool or interesting, but he really just wanted a sketch that was detached from reality.

Reality was too confusing at the moment. Sure the drawings from that confusion were messy, chaotic, and visually interesting, but that just reinforced paying attention _to_ the reality. Drawing was supposed to be an escape, but it wasn’t doing its job. Virgil did enjoy some of the aesthetics of the scribbles though. He would have to have something like that in one of his more polished drawings. Polished drawings. He hadn’t had a real finished drawing in the longest times. There was always something that interfered.

It was nice to have that freedom back. He was still flooded with things to do. He was literally part of a war now, but he was still free to do what he wanted in his free time. If they weren’t focusing on everything happening, he was allowed to draw. Virgil got a rush of excitement when he realized he could show Logan and the others some of his drawings. He had shown Remy some of them, but he was scared to show him the darker ones which were 90% of them. That wasn’t a fear anymore though. Remy knew and that was okay.

Virgil felt a rush of relief as the final bell rang. Virgil had already packed his stuff up, so he left the classroom without issue. He quickly walked over to the front of the school to meet Logan. He felt slightly bad for crashing at his place for another day, but he couldn’t lie that he preferred it. Not only did he appreciate spending time with Logan, but Logan’s parents seemed like good people. Virgil had only met them briefly, but they seemed like genuine people. However, the seemed like they were forever busy. That was why they had only met once.

After not too long, Virgil met up with Logan at the front of the school. They exchanged a quick greeting before heading to Logan’s car. The whole ride back was uneventful. It wasn’t a long ride either. Virgil looked out the window like he pretty much always did. The notebook sat in his lap for the entirety of the ride. There was no use putting it in his bag as he knew they would decode an entry, or maybe a couple, when they got back.

The rest of the trip, from the car to Logan’s room, was just as uneventful as the rest. Virgil sat at the desk as Logan went to go get water for himself and Virgil. Virgil flipped the notebook to the page that had the next code. It didn’t look as long as the last one, but it may have been more/just as dense. Virgil grabbed the journal from the desk and opened it to an empty page.

Logan came in as Virgil began to decode. Logan set down the cup down next to Virgil before sitting down on the bed. Virgil offered a quick thanks but didn’t stop. Entries took long enough to decode when Virgil was fully concentrated.

“A bit more info has come to light. It’s not a lot, unfortunately, but it is something. It is obvious now that Ledas is against Protectors in practically every way. I’m not sure if I can find any common ground between them. Though, I don’t know a lot about Protectors.” As Virgil finished the first paragraph, he read it out.

“Even if it’s just reaffirming what we already know, it’s something.” Virgil leaned back in the chair with a sigh.

“There’s still another paragraph. We can hope it has something more helpful.”

“I’m sure there will.” Logan took a brief. “Actually, I was curious if you’d like to train after we decode an entry or two.” Training did sound fun and Virgil hadn’t trained with his Presents in what felt in forever. He may have fought just yesterday, but that felt like it had been ages ago.

“Sounds good to me,” Virgil answered leaning back over to the notebook to finish the rest.

“Regardless, I got ahold of another paper. It makes things a bit clearer. It basically states that Ledas has some kind of proof that Protectors are in fact part of the reason why Sub-Presents are spreading. It states that some kind of book holds exactly how they’ve apparently been spreading them.

“That’s really all I have for now.” Virgil repeated what he had done before and read it to Logan. This time, however, he was actually excited that it mentioned something that they didn’t know. Protectors were spreading Sub-Presents and they had a book about it.

“You were right. That is actually extremely informative. I’m not sure how to take it though. Sub-Presents aren’t even talked about among normal Protectors. I didn’t even realize they were a thing.” Logan stood up and walked closer to where Virgil was sitting. He looked at the journal as if it would answer the questions they had when they both knew it was limited.

“I didn’t either. I’m guessing some of us have them without even realizing.” Virgil stood up as well, walking to the back door with Logan. He knew Logan had a backyard which is where they were most likely going to train.

“Well, Roman being able to tell how powerful someone is, seems like it would be a Sub-Present with what we know.” Logan commented opening the door and leading Virgil to the center of the backyard. It was more kept up than Virgil would’ve thought considering how busy his parents were.

“That’s true. We’ll have to bring it up the next time we talk.” Virgil and Logan walked apart and faced each other. Virgil activated his shields knowing he would need it. He still had no idea what Presents Logan had, but he knew he was strong. That wasn’t a debate.

“Well, you seem ready.” Logan teased which made Virgil laugh even though he was ready to fight.

“You think I wouldn’t be when I have no idea what’s about to happen?” Logan smiled slightly.

“Well then, let’s get started.” Virgil dug his feet in the grass as Logan finished his statement. He wasn’t sure if he was going to do any physical strikes, but it was better to prepare himself for it than to be surprised. Logan readied his hand in front of him. So he had at least one elemental Present. Virgil quickly crossed his forearms in front of his face as a cylinder of water rushed towards it. Virgil had the instinct to B-5 to put Logan at a disadvantage, but he was fighting in a backyard. Property damage was not a good idea.

Virgil decided to try something risky. He had H-1 and J-3 active, but he had an idea that would need him to activate another. He was surprised he could even have 2 active at the same time, 3 would be ridiculously lucky. Virgil took the shield on his right arm and threw it at Logan. As predicted, he dodged, and the shield deactivated. Instead of reforming that shield though, Virgil activated B-5 in that hand. A small wisp of his signature fire burned. Logan looked at the fire surprised. Virgil couldn’t blame him. Even _he_ was surprised it worked.

“3 at once? Really?”

“Look, I’m just as surprised as you are.” Logan rolled his eyes slightly and readied his hand again. This time the water was aimed more toward his chest. Virgil used his right hand to blast a fire column into the water. What didn’t evaporate was sent into the garden.

“You’re powerful, I’ll give you that, but you’re inexperienced.” Logan, in a flash, sent a strong wind over to Virgil. Virgil went to cover the flame with his shield, but as he did Logan knocked him over with another burst of water. The shield remained intact as he fell, but the fire was gone. The fall didn’t hurt, but it did shake Virgil up a bit. He really should’ve known something like that would’ve happened.

“For some reason, I didn’t expect that.” Logan laughed slightly and walked over to where Virgil laid on the, now wet, grass. Logan offered his hand which Virgil took to get up. Virgil deactivated his shield as soon as he stood up. “I knew you were good, but I still underestimated how fast you were with Presents.”

“I noticed.” Logan smiled slightly and led Virgil back into the house. Virgil followed hoping that he would be able to change out of his damp jeans. “I think the problem is that you think too much before making a move. I didn’t notice that a lot the first time I saw you fight, but it was definitely there this time.” Virgil couldn’t disagree. He didn’t trust his instinct on most things. “I’ll be in the kitchen after you change.” Before Virgil could respond Logan had walked off into the kitchen. Virgil shook his head and walked into Logan’s room.

He didn’t have any lounge pants, so Logan had let him use some of his. They were really too long for him, but they were comfortable, and he could cuff them if he couldn’t walk in them. That was the case for this pair of sweatpants. Virgil cuffed them until they didn’t cover his ankles before he walked out of the room. He was tempted to deactivate H-1 and put on his binder because of how tired he was, but he didn’t want to put the binder on after just fighting.

“There you are.” Logan must’ve heard his footsteps as he was looking away from Virgil as he walked into the kitchen. Virgil made some sort of noise of agreement and hoisted himself up onto the counter across from Logan to sit. Whether he liked counters because he was gay or short was unclear.

“We should do that again. Maybe for longer next time.” Logan looked away from whatever he was making and looked back at Virgil. He didn’t seem surprised that Virgil was casually sitting on the counter.

“How about the next time we do this I teach you instead.” Virgil thought about Logan’s offer longer than he really should’ve. Virgil was so inexperienced it wasn’t even funny. He had only seriously fought once, and he may have permanently injured him. It depended on if he sought out someone with a really strong healing Present.

“It would be dumb of me not to take that chance.” Logan nodded seemingly absentmindedly. The two sat in comfortable silence before Virgil decided to ask what had been nagging at his mind. “What Presents _do_ you have?”

“Ah. I figured you would ask. You only saw one today after all. I have A-8, B-13, and M-3.” Virgil racked his mind for what those were. He knew he had the classifications for Presents somewhere in his memory. B-13 was being able to control and/or create water and air. A-8 was something along the lines of stealing intelligence. M-3 was the ability to move any objects with their mind except for anything living. Those all seemed oddly fitting for Logan.

“On a completely different topic, did you ever meet K when he was a Protector?” Logan paused for a second. He turned to face Virgil and leaned against the counter behind him. His face held a contemplative look.

“I’m not entirely sure. You meet a lot of people being a Protector. Some you become friends with, like Roman and Patton, and others fade back into the sea of faces you see every day. It’s likely that I did meet K if he was there for a while, but I don’t know when he left.”

“That makes enough sense. I’m curious about how he left though.” If he had left and wasn’t constantly on the run and could even still go to school, they might want to learn how he did it so that Logan, Roman, and Patton could follow.

“We’ll have to stay for the time being to get info for K and his group, but after that, it would be a wise idea to do it how K did it.” Logan took a small pause. “On a slightly different note, do you think the book you mentioned has something to do with what K is trying to destroy?”

“Maybe? It’s not unlikely, but at the same time we can’t say for sure.” The book could’ve been something that was already destroyed. Virgil did write it years ago. There was a solid chance that it was already destroyed. They would find out soon enough.

As Logan went back to cooking the kitchen fell into silence once again. Neither of them really minded. Virgil was good just to watch Logan make whatever he was making, and Logan seemed happy enough. Virgil found himself almost dozing off because of the peacefulness of it. He may have even dozed off for a bit as the next thing he knew Logan was nudging him slightly.

“Food’s ready if you’re hungry.” Virgil nodded and slid himself off the counter. Virgil grabbed a plate and picked some of what Logan made. Some kind of chicken with a mix of vegetables. Logan did the same and led Virgil to the table.

The two ate in peace with some small talk. The two hadn’t really talked about something light-hearted to each other. Every conversation had always led to what was happening or something to do with Virgil and Janus. While Virgil loved talking to Logan about the kind of stuff, he had craved some kind of normalcy from their talks.

Topics ranged from books to art to food to almost any topic in between. Virgil mentioned how he drew a lot which prompted Logan to ask to see them eventually. Virgil found himself itching to grab his drawings then and there to show him. Even if most were on lined paper, Virgil still liked the way they looked. Regardless, they eventually finished their meal and returned to Logan’s room.

Virgil pulled out his art notebook and sat on the bed next to Logan. Virgil and Logan sat and flipped through the pages. Virgil started with the ones he drew that day. The scribbled drawings the replicated the chaos of what was happening. He then flipped back to the drawings that represented Janus. They were less chaotic, but they were mostly large beasts and monsters. They generally had a snake element. A long, slithering body or a snake tongue. They didn’t have any color, but Virgil would know that they would have yellow accents.

There were more drawings than Virgil than remembered. There were a couple of spider drawings and multiple had webs even if there wasn’t spider. The few human drawings he had each had something odd about them. Whether it be black ooze or barely stitched together body parts. He wasn’t worried about how Logan reacted to the drawings. They were mostly vent drawings anyway.

“I had no idea you drew so much.” Virgil closed the notebook and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah, it’s a hobby of mine.”

“Well, I’d love to see your drawings whenever you have more.” Virgil couldn’t help the small smile that tugged his face.

“I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so close to surpassing What We Can't See as my longest fic and I am so excited for that day!  
> However, I'm not that confident in this chapter?  
> It doesn't seem as good?  
> Oh, well.  
> Hope you enjoyed it regardless! Also, I'll try and have chapter 12 up in a reasonable amount of time.


	12. One Thing After Another

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp. Did not get this out in a reasonable amount of time.  
> The Q&A is still open. I don't actually have any to answer in this note.  
> Sad times.  
> Email:  
> NathanAlexanderWrites@gmail.com  
> Questions can be about anything.

Virgil found himself waking up from a splash of water to the face. Virgil shot up and wiped his face. His eyes darted around the room to see Logan smiling smugly as he got himself ready for the day. Virgil, because he was pettier than he would ever admit, quickly shot a short blast of water towards Logan’s face. 

“What was that for?” Logan asked innocently as he looked over at Virgil. Virgil laughed slightly under his breath. 

“What was that for? Payback.” Virgil said as he got out of the bed. Whether or not he agreed with Logan’s _method_ of waking him up, he did actually need to get ready. Logan snorted slightly and focused back on the desk. Virgil slunk over to the drawer where his clothes were being kept. Before he picked out his clothes, he activated H-1 as he had done every morning. Virgil grabbed his 3rd pair of black ripped jeans plus some sort of band shirt. He couldn’t remember when he got it or even why, but it was a cool shirt none the less. 

Virgil made quick work going to the bathroom and changing, taking extra care of the still wrapped wound. Virgil still found himself avoiding the mirror throughout the process of changing. Maybe it was habit. Or maybe he was still insecure and dysphoric about his body. Whatever it was, Virgil only looked in the mirror to quickly comb his hair into the right direction and to put on eyeshadow. Virgil didn’t put it on every day, some days he was too exhausted to, but he made it look passable. 

“You alright?” Logan asked as Virgil rushed back into the room. Virgil made a quick noise in affirmation and moved to shove shit into his bag. He had fallen asleep before he had the chance to put the journal and his art into his bag. The journal was the top priority, but the day would be miserable if he didn’t have something to, at least, scribble in. Then again, he had other notebooks. 

The two moved in quiet harmony as they got ready for the day. They had only spent a select amount of days together, but it wasn’t hard for the two to fall in a rhythm. There wasn’t that much to do before school anyway. Virgil took over making breakfast while Logan double checked that they had everything they needed and that all their homework was done. They sat to eat, Virgil finishing up a homework packet he forgot was due. Logan pulled out a book and read it before their last alarm went off which meant that they had to start heading out the door. 

Virgil picked up the dishes and plopped them into the sink while Logan grabbed both of their bags and walked out of the car. Virgil grabbed his hoodie before he walked out the door following Logan, locking the door behind him. He crawled into the passenger seat of Logan’s car and they were off. Neither of them liked talking while driving so Virgil always found himself with his headphones on admiring how the world flew by. Logan seemed to enjoy the peaceful silence. 

Once they were at the school, they quickly made their way over to the courtyard where their friends were waiting. Virgil found himself nearly bounding over to them. He was in a surprisingly good mood. He had been almost constantly stressed for so long. Even though he knew things were only going to pile on, he knew that he wasn’t alone in any of it. Sure, it wasn’t that different in the long run, but it lifted such a great weight off of him. 

“You’re in a good mood today.” Remy pointed out as Virgil and Logan stopped in front of them. Virgil frowned slightly. 

“It’s not that weird.” Virgil mumbled slightly. Remy laughed lightly and smiled down at him. 

“I guess not anymore.” Remy paused and pulled out his phone. “You guys gonna be here for lunch?” Virgil shook his head almost sullenly. He wanted to spend more time with Remy because he had more time, but the whole war took up all the new earned free time. “It’s all good. We’ll hang out soon.” Remy’s smile brightened, but Virgil could see all the emotions it hid. 

“We will.” Virgil returned the smile, even if it was less bright. The five fell into small talk. The mood returning to unreasonably happy. Despite knowing everything happening, it was okay to just have a chill moment. The small talk found itself inching towards the topics of the war, but the bell rang before the topic could fully switch. 

Classes went by normally for the most part. Virgil didn’t pay attention for the most part, his English teacher had an actually interesting lesson that he listened to, and then he went to the next one. Luckily, the only class he had Janus in was after lunch. Even then, he could ignore Janus pretty well. Well, he hadn’t seen him in that class since Thursday. He hadn’t been in the class Monday as that class had been canceled, and he hadn’t seen him yesterday. That was… disconcerting. 

Eventually, lunch came and the four walked over to where K said for them to meet. 

“There you are.” K said as he pushed himself off of the box he was sitting on. “I was worried you were going to be a no-show.” K walked towards the group with a stack of papers in his hand. “There’s not much to do today besides go over what our goal is.” K handed over the papers to Virgil. Virgil flipped through papers. 

“A book? Mind elaborating what’s in it?” K looked confused but motioned over to one of the many people working the background. The guy that walked over was shorter than K, but not that much, with messy black hair and maroon eyes. The guy held a piece of paper in his hands, go figure, and began to read information out. 

“The book the Protectors hold has information about how they’ve spread Sub-Presents to the point where three out of every five people with Presents have one.” 

“So it is the same book.” Everyone but Logan looked over to Virgil in confusion. Virgil rubbed the back out of his neck slightly. 

“We decoded an entry last night and found out about the book. I was curious if it was the same one we read about was all.” After a moment of silence, K shrugged. 

“Fair enough. There might be some helpful info in that journal after all.” K jumped onto the box he was sitting on before they arrived. “By the way, this is Vincent. He’s like my right-hand man.” Vincent made a small hand movement before going back to what he was doing before K called him over. 

“Sorry if this sounds rude, but shouldn’t we get back to what we’re here for?” Roman, who had been silent since they arrived, spoke up. 

“I’d rather get it over with.” Patton mumbled slightly, most likely to himself. K seemed to acknowledge the need to move on as he motioned to the papers in Virgil’s hands. 

“Those have what you need to know about the book and all that jazz. After you all go over that, meet me back here. Then, I’ll give you your dose of info on Vatra. Sound good?” 

“Lunch will end in 10 minutes. I’m assuming that you’re intending us to skip the rest of our classes.” Logan noted, disgruntled. K didn’t answer verbally, but he did softly nod. Logan made a noise of annoyance but followed Virgil and the rest to a place they could talk. There was a small area in the corner that far enough away so that they could talk. 

The papers basically wrote that the book was what the thought it to be, but also where they thought it was and how they plan to destroy it. At first, it seemed like a complete plan, but the more Virgil looked over it, the more it was obvious they were missing details. Mainly, what the Protectors were doing currently. That was why they needed Logan, Roman, and Patton. Huh. He really should’ve expected that. 

“So that’s that, right? Once all that’s done, we can leave the Protectors and leave that behind us?” Roman questioned, leaning up again the wall to his side. Virgil shook his head lightly. 

“Not quite. After you leave, we still have the whole war thing. It wouldn’t be right to just ignore it when we know what’s happening.” Roman mumbled slightly but nodded his head. Virgil took that as a success and shoved the papers that had scattered throughout their discussion back into a stack. Virgil tried to put them in the order in which he was handed, but he couldn’t quite remember where all of them fell in the pile. Regardless, they were in a stack when he handed them back to K. 

“You understand everything?” K asked as he set the stack of papers onto a desk. What even was this place? 

“Pretty much.” Virgil found himself answering out of instinct as his eyes darted around the… storage unit? It looked like one, but Virgil didn’t remember there being _that many_ abandoned storage units. The school was run-down, so it wasn’t extremely surprising. 

“Well then, let’s get into our side of the deal. Info on Vatra, yeah?” Virgil looked around for a place to sit, but the only space nearby was the floor. That didn’t stop him from sitting on the floor. Patton joined him, but Logan and Roman remained standing up once again. “I won’t tell you everything today, but let’s start out with the basics.” K leaned against the box. “Vatra is smaller in size compared to Ledas, but their members are more coordinated. 

“You see, Ledas has a lot of members that are part of it, but for the wrong reasons. Thinking that Ledas will take over the government and become all-powerful. That’s not our goal, by the way. This leads to Ledas being a lot more disjointed. But this is about Vatra. Vatra has a lot of ins with Protectors. Surprisingly, not all of it is hidden. A couple of the representatives of Vatra are active around the Protector base. 

“The Protectors invited them to try and show Vatra that the Protectors don’t need reforming. They don’t realize that it’s only convincing them to reform them more. It also gives Vatra the info they need to do such a thing. One last thing before I send you on your way, Vatra may have inside information that we don’t have, but Ledas has an exceeding number of ex-Protectors. 

“Now, there’s still time before classes end. I recommend staying here until then. Maybe talk with someone before you go.” K finished off and walked away before any of them could respond. Virgil stood up and mind raced to fit the information into what they already knew. It explained why his parents were part of Ledas when they weren’t the type of people he would associate with it. They were power-hungry. His parents… _his parents._ Virgil had completely forgotten about them. 

“Let’s go back to the corner.” Whether or not Logan could tell that Virgil was slingshotted into a panic attack was unclear, but Virgil was more than happy to go into an isolated corner. Suddenly the moving and rustling of the people inside the storage unit were too loud. They echoed through his mind causing him to walk faster. The rest of the group picked up their pace to match. When they reached the corner, Virgil sat right next to Logan and Patton. Logan because he trusted him more than anyone and Patton because he thought maybe C-5 would help. It didn’t. 

“You alright, Virgil?” Virgil shook his head lightly. 

“Panic attack.” Logan nodded and grabbed Virgil’s hand lightly. 

“I wish I could help. My Present doesn’t do anything against attacks.” Patton explained searching through his bag for something. 

“Patton, what are you looking for?” Roman asked as he pulled out his phone for who knows what reason. “Bad news.” That was _not_ what Virgil needed to hear. 

“Bad news?” Logan asked which was met with Roman handing off his phone to him. “Ah. I see.” 

“What’s going on?” Virgil asked trying to look at the phone, but Logan handed it back to Roman before he could. 

“A fellow Protector just contacted us. You know how I put your parent situation into an actual report?” Virgil nodded lightly. “Well, it was fully put through today.” Logan paused slightly. “Which means that we have to go through with it today.” 

“We have to go back today?” Virgil tightened his grip on Logan’s hand. 

“To arrest them, yes.” Logan tightened his own grip to match Virgil’s. Virgil tried to relax himself with the touch, but it didn’t work as well as he would’ve hoped. 

“Ayla says she’ll meet us there. We should go straight there after this.” Roman stood up but kept his bag on the ground. “She needs the address.” Roman looked over to Virgil who reached up to grab Roman’s phone. Roman handed the phone off. Virgil typed the address and hit send before he could fully process what was happening. 

“Ayla’s coming?” Patton asked as he stopped digging through his bag. 

“Yeah. She was sent to make sure everything goes smoothly.” Roman leaned against the wall. He didn’t exactly look extremely happy. 

“Is she cool?” Virgil’s voice was unsteady, but not nearly as panicked as before. His parents were getting arrested. Everything was going to be alright. 

“Ayla? Yeah, she’s cool. She’s one of the people that we became friends with.” Logan explained to Virgil. Virgil was satisfied with the answer but was still curious as to who she was. Patton continued to dig in his bag which still confused Virgil. The group, at this point, would normally fall into small talk, but the group remained silent until the bell rang. Maybe it was because Virgil was still panicking. Maybe it was because they were all nervous about what was to come. Regardless, the bell rang, and they were off. 

They all took different cars beside Virgil and Logan. The drive there was silent. This time, however, there was a thick sheet of uncomfortable tension. Virgil hovered over the option of putting on his headphones. It would make him more comfortable, no doubt, but was it a better idea to sit in it until everything was over. It wouldn’t be that long until they arrived at his house anyway. 

“Nervous?” Logan’s voice was soft and quieter than usual. Virgil appreciated it, truly, but he still found himself really not wanting to answer. He did anyway. 

“Hard not to be.” It was clear that the conversation ended before it began, so no one elaborated. Virgil found himself watching cars go by to help calm himself down before shit went down. It was best if he was calm so that he could fight if he needed to. Though, he really hoped that he wouldn’t. They arrived what felt like far too soon. 

“Ready?” 

“As I’ll ever be.” Virgil didn’t elaborate and stepped out of the car. Logan was close behind him in both actions and steps. Virgil’s anxiety peaked as he saw all the cars but calmed when he realized that it was just the cars of Roman, Patton, and Ayla. 

“Anything we should know before we go in?” As Logan asked Virgil saw as Roman and Patton got out of their cars. Alongside them was a taller girl with piercing yellow eyes and white hair. The hair was most definitely dyed. Her hair was short and shaved on one side. Why was everyone so intimidating? It didn’t help that her eyes were so similar to Janus’… 

“They haven’t fought in years, but I know they have powerful Presents.” Virgil couldn’t remember what Presents they actually had for the life of him, but he remembered them talking about how powerful they were together. It very well could’ve been bullshit, but Virgil wouldn’t’ve been surprised if that was very much the case. 

“That’s a given.” The others arrived before Virgil could ask what Logan meant by that. Even Logan’s voice as he said it was indiscernible. Virgil swore that there was a hint of pride, but that didn’t make any sense. 

“Everyone ready?” Ayla asked, leaning up against Logan’s car. Virgil closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was okay. They were going into the house to finally end what he had gone through for years. He didn’t have to be scared. Everything was going to be okay. Virgil’s eyes snapped open. 

“Ready.” The group made their way to the front door. Virgil tried to force his hand to stop shaking as he turned the handle. Upon opening the door, they were met with the foul stench of rotting food. Virgil couldn’t say he was surprised. His parents always left cleaning up to him. He wasn’t even sure they knew how to. Virgil scrunched his nose to try and hide the stench as they slowly made their way in. Virgil saw their cars in the driveway, so they were home. Where was the question. 

Virgil led the group through the house. His parents were either in the living room or their bedroom. As they walked through it became obvious that the living room turned out to be a bust, which was slightly disappointing. The living room was far more open than their bedroom. It would be tougher to fight in there if it came to that. Knowing them, it probably would. 

Would he even be okay with his injury? He hadn’t thought about in his fight with Logan mainly because Logan had been sure not to aim for it. He hadn’t realized it at the time, but after looking back at it, Logan definitely went easy on him to avoid his injury getting fucked up. His parents wouldn’t do the same. They most likely didn’t even remember the fact that they shot him. They were probably too drunk to have any memory of that day. That was infuriating. 

Finally, they made it to the room. Virgil’s hand hesitated on the doorknob. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder. Virgil took another deep breath and opened the door. Inside the room were both of his parents sprawled out on the bed. The bed was practically stained brown. Virgil’s nose scrunched once again. The room was absolutely disgusting. Ayla took charge and walked into the room. 

“Alright. Rise and shine!” Ayla’s eyes glowed briefly as she raised her hand. Virgil flinched before he reminded himself that it was Ayla. His parents shot up and looked around. They ended up locking eyes with Virgil. Virgil had to resist the urge to hide behind the group. Their gaze would always send a shiver down his spine. “Helen and Hunter Storm, you are under arrest for child abuse. Come with us or force will be used.” Ayla kept her hand raised as she stared at his parents. Logan took a step forward as they stood up. Roman and Patton followed. 

“The fuck?” His mother spat as she looked Ayla dead in the eye. 

“Please comply or we will be forced to take action.” Ayla said once more, just as calm. Virgil watched as the air changed from tense to downright hostile. 

“Who are you to tell us what to do?” Virgil felt himself recoil as his father spit words out of his mouth as if they were poison. 

“Sir, with all due respect, we are Protectors. We have every authority to tell you what to do _especially_ when many of us are the Protector of your son.” Virgil was almost impressed by the fact that the others were letting Ayla lead the encounter. She seemed far more than capable, but Virgil knew the others were a bit more than protective of him. 

“Protectors, huh?” Virgil’s father sneered. “Well, I’m always up for a bit of a fight.” Before Virgil could process what was just said, the first punch was thrown. Ayla, being a lot calmer than Virgil was, caught the fist in her hand and threw one back. It hit his father square in the jaw. His mother stood up and moved over to the others. Virgil activated his shields and stood slightly in front of Logan. No matter how much his legs were shaking, he wasn’t going to let that stop him from keeping his promise. 

“Virgil-” 

“I can fight too.” Virgil reminded Logan as he moved his shields closer to his chest. He had noticed that even though he _could_ have multiple Presents active at once, it tended to tire him out faster. He didn’t have enough experience to tell if switching Presents quickly had the same effect. Beside him, he could see Logan and Roman’s eyes glow as they activated their Presents. Roman had a fire Present active. Unlike Virgil’s, it was the typical red flames. Logan activated B-13 as he had a small ball of water gathering in his hands. Patton also had a Present activated as his hands had turned into cat-like paws with some very threatening claws. Virgil hadn’t seen his eyes glow though. He would have to ask him about it later.

Virgil quickly realized that his fear of it being hard to fight in a small room was very much real. Even having four Protectors was extremely difficult. The room was smaller than a normal bedroom and there wasn’t a lot of room to dodge or to even get far enough away to use certain Presents efficiently. Ayla was in the center which meant that she was dealing with the brunt of the hits. She was no doubt skilled, Virgil could see it in the way she moved, but the restraints of the room showed. Virgil’s eyes widened slightly as an idea popped into his head.

“It was my idea!” Virgil could see as the faces of his friends and ally contorted. Virgil focused on his plan though. He wasn’t going to let himself fail. “I brought them here because I felt bad.” Virgil deactivated his shields and took multiple paces back. As he thought, his parents followed him on instinct.

“And why would you do that?” Virgil’s mother spat at him, but they didn’t stop following him. Virgil looked to mimic defeat as he continued into a more open part of the house.

“I thought that… I wanted…” Virgil paused as he “explained.” Virgil looked up to see if everyone had followed, they had, but looked near his parents' faces so that they wouldn’t look backward. Virgil put his hands behind his back as if he were fidgeting when he was getting ready to activate B-8. “Because you deserve it.” Virgil activated B-8 and threw his parents back with a strong gust of air. He knew that his mother had J-2, a forcefield Present, but he knew that she didn’t have the best reaction time.

The rest of the group fell into battle quickly. Patton was surprisingly efficient with his paw/claw things. Logan was efficient as he would expect from their dummy fight. Roman was also very efficient, but definitely showier. Not that Virgil was one to judge. He was always pretty dramatic. Ayla was more graceful than the others, that was for sure. Virgil fell into the rhythm with them. He was confident using his preferred Presents as he wasn’t very controlled yet. He would most definitely burn the house down if he used B-5 like Roman. His main goal was to keep his parents off-balance so that the others could do the real damage.

Speaking of his parents, they were not doing so hot. His mother tried to activate J-2 a couple times, but they hadn’t stayed for longer than a couple seconds. It was most likely the constant assault of _five_ people. His father was doing better, on the other hand. He was always skilled A-1. However, the biggest ace up his sleeve, C-3 the Present to control body and mind, didn’t work on any of them. Virgil had it used on him so often, that he knew exactly how to resist it. The others were too strong-willed to let the Present affect them.

Eventually, his parents were on the ground. Logan and Ayla took action handcuffing his parents and taking them to Ayla’s car. Virgil remained standing in the middle of the living room. He hadn’t even realized where they had fought. He was only concerned with getting them into an open room. Virgil felt weird looking at his house without the looming threat of his parents. The house was still disgusting, but it was strangely calm.

Virgil felt his feet take him to the kitchen once more. He looked outside of the window only to see to bright, glowing, yellow snake-like eyes staring at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent, like, 10 minutes trying to find a word that meant unreasonably happy, but I couldn't find one.  
> Also, my friend Josh pretty much made Ayla, so that's dope. Also, yes, this chapter did have 2 OCs. Leave me alone.  
> I meant to upload this yesterday, but I had some... issues with the word doc.  
> [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nathanalexanderwrites/) [Twitter](https://twitter.com/NateAWrites) [Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJXvHY7ddVIW3y-KX7UN3BVhvXR753Ov5)


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